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BLIC EDUCATION IN 
DELAWARE 



A REPORT TO THE 

PUBLIC SCHOOL COMMISSION 

OF DELAWARE 



GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD 

61 Broadway New York 

1918 



PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 



PUBLIC EDUCATION IN 
DELAWARE 



A Report to the 
Public School Commission of Delaware 



GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD 

61 Broadway New York 

1918 



<'^" 

-^^v 



A*' 



COPYRIGHT, 1 9 19, 
BY 

General Education Board 



©CI. A5 1230 8 

FEB 10 1919 



G*^ 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Commission's Letter of Transmission . . . vii 

Introduction xiii 

I. Delaware: Its People AND Industries . 3 

II. Present School System ..... 6 

III. State Board of Education and Com- 

missioner OF Education 12 

IV. County School Commissions and County 

Superintendents 20 

V. District School Committees and Boards 

of Education 30 

VI. The Teachers 39 

VII. The Schools and Their Work ... 48 

VIII. Enrollment and Attendance ... 64 

IX. Financing the Schools 72 

X. Conclusions ^3 

XI. Appendix 97 



LETTER OF TRANSMISSION 

To his Excellency John G. Townsend, Jr., Governor of 
the State of Delaware: 

The Legislature of the State of Delaware, at the ses- 
sion in 191 7, passed an act for the purpose of creating a 
commission to study educational conditions in Delaware 
and make recommendations to the Legislature of 19 19. 
The act of 191 7, chapter 186, which created said commis- 
sion, in part reads as follows: 

That the Governor of the State of Delaware be and he is hereby- 
authorized and empowered to appoint a Commission of five members, 
one from each County of the State and two at large, to make a survey 
of the public schools for both white and colored children in the State, 
to study the administration of the said schools, to consider the appropria- 
tions made therefor, to investigate the use of the funds so appropriated, 
to harmonize, unify and revise the school laws, to develop an educational 
system suited to the conditions existing in the State, providing for 
an improved and efficient administration of all free school matters and 
the training of a competent teaching force, and said Commission is hereby 
directed to report its findings and recommendations to the Governor, 
which report shall be transmitted by the Governor to the General As- 
sembly at its session of 1919 * * * 

That the said Commission shall have power to arrange the organiza- 
tion and equipment of the survey as it may deem best, to employ and fix 
the compensation of clerical, professional, expert and other help, to pur- 
chase such books and supplies as it may require, and in general to make 
any provisions for the work as may be deemed necessary and expedient. 

vii 



viii PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

The Commission was unanimously of the opinion that 
the work of making this survey and making recommenda- 
tions for the betterment of our school conditions ought to 
be done by the best school experts to be found. Your 
Commission, therefore, made a very thorough inquiry 
in regard to school experts; and, as a result, prevailed 
upon the General Education Board of New York to un- 
dertake the survey. Your Commission feels that the 
State of Delaware was particularly fortunate in securing 
the services of this Board at this time. 

It is also fitting that we should here state the fact that 
the General Education Board made no charge against 
the State of Delaware for the salaries of the trained and 
experienced school experts of the Board who were as- 
signed to our work; and that the only charge made 
against us was the expense incurred in making the in- 
vestigation. There is therefore a larger sum available 
for the publication of the report and we have arranged 
for the immediate distribution of 7,500 copies among the 
people of the state, in order that the widest publicity 
possible may be given of the facts therein contained. 
A copy can be obtained by any interested citizen. 

The present report, by Dr. Abraham Flexner and 
Dr. Frank P. Bachman, has been carefully read by and 
discussed with your Commission, and it meets with the 
hearty approval of your Commission; and your Com- 
mission earnestly recommends the adoption of the sug- 
gestions made therein, and further recommends that 
the Legislature of the State of Delaware pass the laws 



LETTER OF TRANSMISSION ix 

herewith submitted, for the purpose of carrying out these 
recommendations. 

Dr. Flexner, now one of the secretaries of the General 
Education Board, was formerly connected with the Car- 
negie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He 
is the author of ''The American College," "Medical 
Education in the United States and Canada," ''Medical 
Education in Europe," and numerous papers dealing 
with educational subjects. 

Dr. Bachman has served as Assistant Superintendent 
of the schools of Cleveland, and was a member of the 
staff of experts who, headed by Professor Hanus, con- 
ducted the survey of the schools of New York City. 
He has also taken an important part in similar investi- 
gations elsewhere. He has published books entitled, 
"Problems in Elementary School Administration," and 
"Principles of Elementary Education." His contribu- 
tions to the New York school survey deal with the 
elementary schools and the school budget. Dr. Flex- 
ner and Dr. Bachman also gained valuable experience, 
which inured to our benefit, in the educational survey 
previously made by them of public education in the 
State of Maryland. It may not be amiss to state that 
they recommended a thorough reorganization of the 
school law of Maryland and that the measure embodying 



X PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

their recommendations was promptly adopted by the 
Legislature of Maryland. 

It is with a deep sense of humiliation to our state pride 
that we learn that the State of Delaware, which was the 
first to sign the Constitution, which stood among the 
very first in every Liberty Loan, Red Cross or War 
drive during the recent war, and whose citizens have ever 
been most loyal to the best traditions of this country, 
stands so low in school efficiency. In view of the facts 
contained in this report, your Commission feels that it 
cannot urge too strongly the great necessity of taking 
effective steps at once to improve our school conditions. 
We now know that we are not doing for our children 
what we ought to do. We Delawareans cannot afford 
to have this said of us. 

To possess poor schools is poor business policy, not 
only because they give us a poor grade of citizenship, but 
also from a purely financial standpoint. Money invested 
in good schools brings large returns. People seeking 
homes come to states and communities with good 
schools. This increases the value of property and farms 
in the good school states. 

Education is fundamental to the development of a 
people. If the people of a state are properly educated 
they will always find a way to peaceably correct all 
evils which may arise in the community life. Proper 
education will make democracy safe for the world. 



LETTER OF TRANSMISSION 3d 

We consider the recommendations herewith submitted 
eminently practical. Dr. Wallace Buttrick, President 
of the General Education Board, when we requested 
that they make the investigation, stated that his organi- 
zation was interested in getting practical results, and 
would not undertake to set up a Utopian scheme. Your 
Commission endorsed this poHcy. Accordingly, the 
changes recommended in this report are simple but funda- 
mental. The school laws of the State of Delaware are 
weak in that they were enacted at various times and 
were not correlated, so that, while some of our boards 
possess sufficient powers, they lack means of enforcing 
the powers which the people had already given them, and 
these powers are, therefore, more or less nominal. The 
recommendations herein contained correct these mis- 
takes. 

The Commission respectfully submits herewith copies 
of the proposed bills drafted in line with its recommenda- 
tions, to be submitted to the Legislature. We most 
earnestly urge the passage of these bills in the manner in 
which they have been submitted, without amendment, 
in order that the state may gain the full benefit of the 
recommendations of the experts who have rendered this 
service. We believe that if this is done a very great 
step in advance will be taken. 

Your Commission as first appointed included the late 
L. Scott Townsend, one of the most beloved, energetic 
and public-spirited men of the State of Delaware. He 
gave to the work the very best that was in him; and we 



xii PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

wish the people of the State of Delaware to remember 
that the work here presented by us is also the work of 
L. Scott Townsend. He said in his lifetime, in speaking 
of this task, "I wish for no greater monument than some 
worth while work done for the school children of the State 
of Delaware." We feel that the adoption of the recom- 
mendations of the experts employed by your Commission 
will indeed be a fitting monument to one of the noblest 
citizens of our state, who passed away in the midst of 
this investigation. 

We wish to make pubHc acknowledgment of the valu- 
able help rendered during this investigation by Dr. A. R. 
Spaid, Professors Wilbur Jump, Robert E. Shilling, 
Ernest J. Hardesty, and Miss Etta J. Wilson, and the 
large number of devoted school teachers whose services 
were ever at our command. 

We cannot close this report without also expressing 
to you. Governor Townsend, our very deep appreciation 
of the unselfish aid which you personally rendered 
throughout the course of this investigation. 

Respectfully submitted this twenty-second day of 
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine 
hundred and nineteen. 

Caleb E. Burchenal, 

Chairman 
John S. Mullin 
Frank L. Grier 
Joseph Frazier 
Henry P. Scott 



INTRODUCTION 

The general assembly of Delaware at its 191 7 session 
authorized the appointment of a commission to survey 
the public schools and revise the school laws of the state; 
this commission invited the General Education Board 
to make the survey; the present volume constitutes its 
report. 

The facts here presented will, it is believed, convince 
the people of Delaware of the urgent importance of 
educational reorganization at this time. Delaware is a 
prosperous state fully able to provide an efficient and 
up to date school system for the children of the common- 
wealth. This the state is far, very far, from now possess- 
ing. The present school system is not indeed entirely 
without good features, for which full credit will be given 
in the course of this report. But, for reasons that will 
appear, what is good in the state school system is not 
effective; and over and above the few excellent features 
in question, the system is in many respects antiquated 
and undeveloped; its financial support is inadequate, 
general and local supervision are alike unsatisfactory, 
the teaching staff is largely untrained, and school build- 
ings are with few exceptions seriously defective. In the 
following pages, these statements will be substantiated 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

and suggestions looking to improvement will be made. 
It should, however, be understood in advance that the 
suggestions made in this report are designed to bring 
about, not an ideal state of affairs, but such improve- 
ments as are at the moment desirable and practicable. 
It is our confident belief that if the recommendations 
here made are adopted the state will at once obtain 
an intelligently organized school system; and, what is 
even more important, conditions favorable to steady 
educational progress will have been established. From 
time to time in the future, further steps can readily be 
taken, as they are recommended by experience and sup- 
ported by public interest. 



PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 



Public Education in Delaware^ 

I. DELAWARE: ITS PEOPLE AND INDUSTRIES 

A STATE school system ought to be planned with 
deliberate reference to the social and industrial 
conditions of the state which it is meant to serve. 
It is therefore important at the outset to learn the saHent 
facts respecting the people of Delaware, their origin, 
their occupations, and their opportunities. 

According to the United States Census of 1910, Dela- 
ware had at that date a population of 202,322. The 
number is now larger, owing especially to the recent 
rapid growth of Wilmington. The population in 1910 
was distributed as follows: Kent County, 32,721; New 
Castle County (exclusive of Wilmington), 35,777; Wil- 
mington, 87,411; Sussex County, 46,413. The growth 
between 1900 and 19 10 had been small, being only 9.5 
per cent., as compared with 21 per cent, in the country 
at large. This increase was confined principally to Wil- 
mington, which gained 10,903, as compared with a gain 
of 6,684 in the rest of the state; in this decade New Castle 
County (exclusive of Wilmington) increased 2,588, Sus- 
sex County increased 4,137, while Kent County lost 41. 
^The schools of Wilmington are not included in this study. 

3 



4 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

Delaware is largely a rural state. There were in 1910 
in the entire commonwealth only four places having a 
population of 2,500 or more: Wilmington, with a pop- 
ulation of 87,411 ; Dover, with 3,720; Milford, with 2,603; 
and New Castle, with 3,351. Forty-eight per cent, of 
the population of the state live in these four towns — 
43 per cent, in Wilmington, and 5 per cent, in Dover, 
Milford, and New Castle. The remaining 52 per cent, 
of the population are rural. There has been little change 
in the proportion of urban and rural dwellers since 1900. 
The generally rural character of the state becomes ap- 
parent, however, only when Wilmington is excluded: 
92 per cent, of the population outside of Wilmington live 
in small villages or in the open country. 

The population is composed almost entirely of two 
races-^whites and negroes — 171,102 or 85 per cent, white, 
31,181 or 15 per cent, negro; there were, besides, only 
39 Indians, Chinese, and Japanese. 

Of the white population, 75 per cent, are native born 
of native parentage, 15 per cent, are native born with 
one or both parents foreign born, and 10 per cent are 
foreign born, the foreign born white population being con- 
fined almost entirely to Wilmington. Outside of Wilming- 
ton 96 per cent, of the white population are native born, 
and only 4.0 per cent, foreign born. It is also interesting 
to note that two thirds of the entire white population 
were born in Delaware. Thus, the schools of Delaware, 
particularly those outside of Wilmington, deal with an 
unusually homogeneous and stable white population/ 



DELAWARE: ITS PEOPLE AND INDUSTRIES 5 

The negro population (31,181) is increasing, though 
slowly, having gained less than 3,000 since 1890. Its 
distribution in 1910 was as follows: Kent County, 7,561, 
or 23 per cent, of the total population of the county; 
New Castle County (exclusive of Wilmington) 6,601, or 
18 per cent.; and Sussex County, 7,938, or 17 per cent. 

The people of Wilmington are engaged in pursuits and 
occupations incident to modern commerce and industry 
on a large scale; the rest of the state is engaged in general 
and diversified agriculture, particularly vegetable and 
fruit growing, and closely related industries, such as fruit 
canning. Trades and professions are represented in the 
smaller cities and villages to the extent that they are 
required by the needs of such communities. 

The schools of Delaware thus serve two races — ^white 
and colored. Those outside of Wilmington — and this 
report deals with those only — serve a homogeneous, 
stable American population, distinctly rural, occupied 
particularly in the production of vegetables, in orchard- 
ing, and in related industries. 

The educational needs of a people composed primarily 
of native stock and so engaged are well known and clearly 
defined. Are the schools of Delaware meeting these 
needs satisfactorily? What changes are called for, if 
any, in organization, supervision, teacher training, finan- 
cial support, etc., that the schools may serve the state 
more effectively? To answer these and kindred ques- 
tions is the object of this report. 



II. PRESENT SCHOOL SYSTEM 

t I AHE administration of the schools of Delaware is 
centered in three boards: the state board of edu- 



1 



cation, the county school commission, and the 
district school committee in rural districts corresponding 
to the board of education in incorporated districts. 

Theoretically, the state board of education, consisting 
of seven members appointed by the governor, stands at 
the head of the system. It is, in the words of the law, 
the function of this board "to systematize and harmonize 
the work in the various free schools of the state, to render 
said schools more useful and efficient and to raise the 
standards of instruction and education therein." To 
these ends the state board of education has power to 
formulate courses of study, to select textbooks, and to 
prescribe rules and regulations controlling the certifica- 
tion of teachers, the sanitary equipment and inspection 
of school buildings, etc. It may require records and 
reports from school officials and teachers, investigate 
the condition of the schools, recommend school legisla- 
tion to the governor and general assembly, and may 
employ such other officers, besides its secretary, as are 
needed. Indeed, as far as the letter of the statute goes 
the state board of education possesses blanket powers to 

6 



PRESENT SCHOOL SYSTEM 7 

take such action ''as it may deem necessary and 
expedient to promote the physical and moral welfare 
of the children of the free schools of this state." We 
shall shortly see, however, that these powers are in the 
main nominal, rather than real. The state commis- 
sioner of education, appointed by the governor with the 
consent of the senate, acts as the secretary of the state 
board of education and is in a sense its executive officer. 

The county school commission, consisting of three 
members appointed by the governor, has, theoretically, 
jurisdiction over all schools of a county, both white and 
colored. To this end, the county school commission 
is authorized to visit all schools, to observe and question 
teachers concerning their methods of instruction and 
discipline, to act as a sanitary commission over school 
property, to lay out the boundaries between school dis- 
tricts, to hear complaints of patrons and teachers, and 
to confer with and aid the county superintendent. How 
far the commission is in position to make its action ef- 
fective, and how it is related to the state board will ap- 
pear in another chapter. 

The county superintendent, also appointed by the 
governor, but with the consent of the senate, though 
not an officer of the county school commission, is its 
agent as far as it has an agent. He advises with the 
district committees about improvements in grounds and 
buildings and in reference to the appointment of teachers. 
He counsels with teachers as to the organization of 
their schools, their instruction, and discipline. Subject to 



8 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

the authority of the state board of education, he also 
examines teachers and nonresident pupils, holds the 
county institute, directs the reading and study required 
for the renewal of certificates, and makes reports to the 
state board of education regarding his activities. 

The title of the local administrative body varies. If 
the school is in the open country or village, its adminis- 
trative body is the district school committee, and there 
is usually one such committee for each schoolhouse. 
Incorporated districts have boards of education. Strange 
to say, however, neither the district committee nor the 
board of education administers all the schools within its 
respective territory; for separate boards or committees 
are set up to have charge of schools for colored children. 
Indeed, if we may so far anticipate, white and colored 
schools are not only separately administered, they are, 
as far as local support goes, separately financed — the 
white schools enjoying all local revenues accruing from 
taxation upon the person and property of whites, the 
colored schools existing on the scanty proceeds from 
the taxation of the person and the property belong- 
ing to negroes. Thus, practically, there are two separate 
school systems, one for white, the other for colored 
children. No such anomalous and undemocratic ar- 
rangement can be found in any other state of the union. 

The powers and duties of the local boards are much the 
same. The district school committee or board of educa- 
tion holds the annual school elections, calls special elec- 
tions, levies and collects the local school taxes, borrows 





^ 



PRESENT SCHOOL SYSTEM 9 

money and issues bonds on the credit of the district, pro- 
vides school grounds, equipment and buildings, employs 
teachers, fixes their salaries and dismisses them for 
cause, determines the length of the school year in excess 
of the required minimum, and prescribes rules and regula- 
tions for the conduct of the schools and for safeguarding 
the health of the pupils. In a word, subject to the ap- 
proval of a majority of the patrons, and in a fashion to 
the authority of the state board of education, the local 
boards exercise complete control within their respective 
districts. However, this control, as we shall see, is not 
of a kind to be helpful in the solution of daily school 
problems, nor is it effective as a stimulus to improve- 
ment. 

In the foregoing description three facts stand out 
prominently: First, the state board of education, the 
commissioner of education, the county school commission, 
and the county superintendent all represent the state. 
The governor appoints them all, and the state pays their 
salaries and contingent expenses. On the other hand, 
the district school committee or the local board of educa- 
tion is elected by the people and thus represents the 
people of the districts concerned. Second, while the 
state board of education, the county school commission, 
and the county superintendent have large powers, they 
have no way of making really effective use of them; they 
can issue regulations, but do not have the machinery 
needed to enforce them. The power of direct action 
belongs almost wholly to the district school committee 



lo PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

or local board of education, both of which thus possess 
preponderant influence over the schools. Third, the 
number of local boards and board members is very large. 
The white schools are governed by 292 district school 
committees, with a membership of 876, and by 44 boards 
of education, with a membership of 259; the colored 
schools are in the hands of 88 district school committees, 
with a membership of 264. Delaware, with three coun- 
ties, thus has 424 local school committees or boards of 
education, and a total of 1,399 local administrative ofh- 
cials. 

The schools over which these boards preside are of two 
grades — elementary schools, grades i to 8, inclusive, and 
high schools. Of the 44 incorporated districts 29 sup- 
port high schools. Besides these 29 high schools, there 
were, in 1917-18, 336 elementary white schools and 90 
elementary colored schools. The white schools alto- 
gether employed 620 teachers and enrolled 19,684 pupils, 
with an average daily attendance of 12,453. The colored 
schools employed 114 teachers and enrolled 4,479 pupils, 
with an average daily attendance of 2,093. Altogether 
there were, thus, outside of Wilmington, in 1917-18, 734 
teachers and an enrollment of 24,163 pupils, with an 
average daily attendance of 14,546. 

The total current expenditures on white schools during 
the school year 191 7-18, exclusive of Wilmington, was 
$400,126.37, which is equal to a current per pupil expen- 
diture on total enrollment of $20.33, ^^^ ^^ average 
daily attendance of $32.13. The total current expendi- 



PRESENT SCHOOL SYSTEM ii 

ture on colored schools was $37,126.81, or a current 
per pupil expenditure on total enrollment of $8.29, and 
on average daily attendance of $17.75. The combined 
current expenditure was, therefore, $437,253.18, which 
is a current per pupil expenditure on total enrollment 
of $18.10, and on average daily attendance of $30.06.^ 
^See Appendix, Table XIII, page io8a. 



III. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 

AND 

COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION 

IN PLACING at the head of its system of public 
education a state board of education and a commis- 
sioner of education, Delaware follows the most ap- 
proved practice. Education has advanced most satis- 
factorily in those states in which a judicious combination 
of state and local authority has been effected. A proper 
degree of local responsibility insures the interest, effort, 
and pride of the community in which the school is located; 
the influence of the state makes for unity of design and 
for uniformity in standards and opportunity. 

Delaware has had a state board of education since 
1875. From 1875 to 191 1 the board was ex-officio, com- 
posed usually of the governor, the president of Delaware 
College, the secretary of state, and the state auditor. 
It had up to 1898 little authority and performed only a 
few specified routine duties. In 1898 larger powers 
were conferred but without materially changing the situ- 
ation. In fact, ex-officio boards of this character have 
perhaps nowhere functioned effectively. As now con- 
stituted the state board of education has existed only 
since 1911; it has had the assistance of a commissioner 



STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 13 

of education only since 1913.^ In its present form, there- 
fore, the Delaware state board of education is of recent 
origin. 

In these five years, the board has initiated a number of 
significant activities. A state course of study has been 
published; high schools have been classified; a new text- 
book list has been adopted; better training for teachers 
has been encouraged through opening a summer school 
for teachers at Delaware College and through securing 
state aid for teachers who attend summer schools; a 
statewide campaign for better school attendance has 
been carried on; a campaign has been conducted for the 
consolidation of schools and for state aid for consolidated 
schools; and a comprehensive program of school legisla- 
tion wa3 presented to the general assembly of 191 7. The 
last year has been devoted particularly to the formula- 
tion of new rules for the certification of teachers, to put- 
ting into effect the law on the importation of dependent 
children, and to applying the Smith-Hughes law. Most 
of these measures are, however, so new that their benefi- 
cial effects are not yet evident. Thus, for example, the 
campaign for consolidation has so far resulted in a single 
instance of consolidation — the Caesar Rodney School. 
Naturally enough, in the brief period under considera- 
tion, the board has not been able to make use of all its 
powers. It has not, for instance, prescribed rules and 



^The ofi&ce of commissioner of education was created in 1875 under the 
title of state superintendent; it was, however, abolished in 1887 and not 
restored until 19 13. 



14 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

regulations for the sanitary equipment and inspection 
of school buildings. 

Time alone will not, however, make the present board 
an effective body. It is not, as a matter of fact, con- 
stituted nor are its functions defined on sound educational 
or administrative principles. A board of education 
meeting three or four times a year for a few hours at a 
time cannot be charged with originating or itself execut- 
ing policies, nor can it undertake to decide and supervise 
matters of detail. These are functions and duties which 
properly belong to a paid expert executive — a commis- 
sioner of education — ^who devotes all his energy and time 
to his work. There is, however, another type of public' 
service, in a high degree valuable and important, which 
a state board can perform, viz., it can represent the 
people in large matters of educational policy, keeping 
the viewpoint of the layman and the needs of the people 
before the executive. The state board thus becomes a 
criticizing, suggesting, and reviewing body which its ex- 
pert executive must consult and convince in all matters 
of moment. Such a board cannot take the place of or 
supersede its executive officer, but it can make sure that 
he does his duty and it can enormously assist him with 
suggestion and counsel. 

A lay board, whose members have been selected by 
the governor with these ends in view, is likely to prove 
the most effective instrument for this purpose. We have 
already briefly touched on the objection to an ex-ofhclo 
board — ^its members may or may not be really interested 




-■*^z^ 



a 

^ 



f- >• 



STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 15 

in education; in any event, their main responsibility lies 
elsewhere, and they are brought together only, as it were, 
accidentally, for brief terms, to act on educational mat- 
ters. The present board is an undoubted improvement 
on the ex-ofhcio board; it is, however, open to criticism 
on the ground that, containing, as it does, professional 
members, it is liable to regard questions of policy from an 
academic rather than the popular point of view. 

The present situation is also defective in consequence 
of a confusion between powers properly belonging to the 
state board and powers properly belonging to its execu- 
tive officer, the state commissioner of education. This 
confusion is due to the fact that the state board of educa- 
tion obtained many of its present powers during the per- 
iod when there was no state superintendent. When the 
office of superintendent was restored in 19 13, the power 
of appointment was vested in the governor with the con- 
sent of the senate. The board retained the powers pre- 
viously assigned to it; while the commissioner of educa- 
tion became its ex-officio secretary, he bears no other legal 
relation to it nor is he responsible to the state board, al- 
though that board prescribes his duties. We therefore 
have this incongruous situation: On the one hand, a 
state board with large powers and duties, but without a 
fully responsible executive ; on the other hand, a commis- 
sioner of education, who is an executive without real re- 
sponsibility or power. Fortunately, the state board and 
the commissioner have in most instances thus far worked 
in harmony. Nevertheless, the law obviously requires 



i6 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

revision. The state board of education should select a 
commissioner of education, who should be its responsible 
executive, with full powers of leadership, while the board 
itself should be vested with powers of suggestion, review, 
and final approval. 

We have called attention to the fact that the state 
board lacks effective means of enforcing its authority. 
The state auditor, in settling the accounts of school offi- 
cers, and the state treasurer, the trustee of the school 
fund, in making the apportionments of state moneys are 
indeed supposed to follow the rules and decisions of the 
state board of education, but the authority and influence 
of these officers can be and are at best only nominal. They 
can do little beyond inquiring (i) whether the schools 
have been in session the minimum of 140 days, and (2) 
whether the minimum tax of $100 has been raised. The 
auditor's settlement, coming at the close of the school 
year, cannot affect the past; the state apportionment by 
the state treasurer and the trustee of the school fund is 
made at the beginning of the school year, and promises 
for the future are, almost without exception, accepted in 
good faith. In practice, therefore, the state board of 
education has no way of enforcing the school laws or its 
regulations; indeed, it has only nominal control over the 
county superintendents, and none at all over the county 
school commissions. Thus, in effect, the state board 
of education, with all its powers, becomes little more than 
an advisory body. A school officer, for example, may 
commit malfeasance — the state board is powerless to 



STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 17 

act. Teachers may be employed without licenses — the 
state board can only protest. Plans for a new school 
building may run counter to the principles of good school 
architecture, or a schoolhouse and outbuildings may 
endanger the health of pupils — the state board can only 
counsel. Clearly, the state department of education 
should possess the power to enforce the school law and 
such regulations and decisions as the law empowers the 
department to make. 

To this end the state department requires financial 
support on a proper basis. The sum of $2,000 appropri- 
ated by the state annually would be insufficient even for 
the contingent expenses of the state board, but out of this 
sum the board pays part of the incidental expenses of the 
three county superintendents and also supplements the 
expense fund of the commissioner of education, itself 
only $300 a year. In consequence, the state depart- 
ment of education has not now and never has had proper 
quarters or an adequate clerical force. Its ofiice force 
is usually limited to a single stenographer. For years it 
has occupied two or three small office rooms, which have 
to be vacated each second winter for months at a time, 
when the general assembly meets. The equipment con- 
sists of two flat top tables, two office desks, and a few 
chairs; the board owns two typewriters, a motor-driven 
mimeograph, one large and one small filing cabinet, and 
a bookcase. 

It is therefore not surprising that such records, docu- 
ments, and summarized information as would throw light 



i8 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

on the growth and development of the system and on the 
present condition of the schools are almost entirely lack- 
ing. The state board has simply never been in position 
to collect and file such records and documents or to make 
the necessary tabulations. By dint of effort, the board 
succeeds at intervals of about ten years in preparing 
and publishing a more or less comprehensive report, but 
the data contained in these reports, given, as they are, 
in detail, without summaries, are of little use. Strange 
as it may seem, the board does not even possess a com- 
plete file of its own reports nor are these to be found in 
the archives of the state. The public school system of 
Delaware is consequently uninformed about itself and 
public school officials lack the data essential to wise plan- 
ning and effective administration. 

Elaborate quarters and a large budget are not called 
for, but the state board and the conamissioner of educa- 
tion should be provided with permanent quarters and 
equipment adapted to their needs. The ofhce force 
should include at least two stenographers for correspon- 
dence, one record and filing clerk, and a statistical assist- 
ant. 

To conclude, changes are obviously required in the 
state department of education if it is to become efficient. 
Appointments to the state board should be limited to 
laymen. The state board, not the governor, should 
choose the commissioner of education. The commis- 
sioner of education should be the board's responsible ex- 
ecutive. The board should be in position to enforce the 



STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 19 

school laws of the state and its own rules and regulations. 
The commissioner of education, chosen by the board, 
should be vested with full power of leadership, and the 
board, as such, should exercise its power through sugges- 
tion, review, and final approval. Finally, the financial 
support of the department should be increased suffi- 
ciently to provide ample quarters, an adequate office 
force, the necessary contingent expenses, including the 
expense connected with the pubHcation and distribution 
of an annual report and occasional special reports. 



IV. COUNTY SCHOOL COMMISSIONS AND 
COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS 

EACH of the three Delaware counties has a county 
school commission created by statute in 1898. 
The commission has three members, appointed 
by the governor for terms of three years. Not more 
than two of the three may be of the same political party. 
As a rule, only laymen are appointed. The state pays a 
maximum of $100 a year to each member for his services 
and traveling expenses. Four regular meetings are 
required annually and there are also occasional special 
meetings. One member acts as secretary, but the 
minutes are fragmentary and incomplete. Like the 
state board of education, as we shall see, the county 
school commission has, as far as the language of the law 
goes, large powers. But, as in the case of the state 
board, these powers are largely nominal. 

To illustrate: Subject to the regulations and oversight 
of the state board of education, the county school com- 
mission is charged with the supervision of all the schools 
of the county — white and colored. To this end, the 
county school commission is authorized to visit the 
schools, observe their work, and question teachers con- 
cerning methods of instruction and discipline. It is 



COUNTY SCHOOL COMMISSIONS 21 

plainly impossible for busy laymen themselves to give 
much time to visiting schools, or to pass judgment on the 
technique of instruction. The commissioners are wise 
enough not to attempt it. The county commission 
could supervise only through paid supervisors, but they 
have neither money nor authority to employ them. 
Again, the state has quite properly authorized the county 
school commission to act as a sanitary board over school 
property. Although a lay commission may not be ex- 
pected to know in detail the principles of good school 
architecture, its judgment on sanitary conditions and 
on needed repairs and improvements is generally sound. 
But in this field, where the county commission might give 
valuable service, it is rendered almost impotent, since 
it has no direct power to enforce its decisions. 

Thus vested, on the one hand, with duties which, 
from their very character, lay commissions cannot per- 
form, and, on the other hand, deprived of the power 
of direct action in the field where they might do a real 
service, the county school commissions settle into a per- 
functory existence. At intervals, questions about the 
boundaries between school districts arise for settlement; 
now and then disputes between the officers of different 
districts, or between officials and teachers, come up for 
decision. Conferences are also occasionally held with 
the district committees of colored schools as to how best 
to apply the $1,000 which the state occasionally appropri- 
ates to each county for the special improvement of school- 
houses for colored children. Once a year the commis- 



22 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

sioners are expected to make a tour of a week or ten days 
with the county superintendent, to inspect school grounds 
and buildings so as to make recommendations for im- 
proving them to the district boards. Some time is also 
given to conferences with the county superintendent. 
These activities are well enough in themselves, but after 
all they are not fundamental. It is therefore clear that 
the county school commissioners are not in position to 
assume leadership in county educational affairs, or to 
exert a positive, unifying, and progressive influence on 
the development of the schools. 

The actual head of the county's educational organi- 
zation is the county superintendent — an official who, curi- 
ously enough, is practically independent of the county 
board. He is, in fact, a state officer, for he is responsible 
to the governor, by whom, with the consent of the senate, 
he is appointed. The law, indeed, requires the county 
superintendent to attend the meetings of the county 
commission and to make such reports as it may request, 
just as it authorizes the county commission "to confer 
with him and aid him concerning the methods and sys- 
tems which he has adopted or desires to introduce into 
the schools." On neither side is this relationship vital. 
The county superintendent is really closer to the state 
board of education, for he is required to attend its 
meetings, to make such reports as it may require, and to 
execute any reasonable request it may make. 

The county superintendents hold ofhce for two years; 
the salary paid by the state has recently been increased 



COUNTY SCHOOL COMMISSIONS 23 

from $1,200 to $1,600. The state contributes about $500 
annually toward traveling expenses, and from the state 
board of education they receive a small sum for contin- 
gencies — ^utilized mainly in enforcing the compulsory 
attendance law. These sums are altogether inadequate, 
particularly in view of the fact that superintendents are 
compelled to buy and maintain their own conveyances. 
Office accommodations are largely a matter of chance. 
The superintendent of New Castle County has an office, 
with the school commission, in the county building at 
Wilmington; the state provides the superintendent and 
commissioners of Kent County with an office in the capitol 
building at Dover; while the superintendent and com- 
missioners of Sussex County have only an improvised 
office which the superintendent has fitted up in his home, 
mostly at his own expense. The superintendents have 
no regular assistance of any kind. 

The county superintendent in Delaware is a supervis- 
ory and not an administrative officer. He has nothing 
to do with business and administrative school mat- 
ters, except as the local school officials voluntarily appeal 
to him for help in finding a teacher or for advice regard- 
ing the erection of a new building, repairs or improve- 
ments. This sort of consultation is becoming more 
frequent. 

The principal duties of the county superintendent as a 
supervising official are these: (i) the certification of 
teachers; (2) the supervision of instruction; (3) the im- 
provement of teachers in service; (4) the enforcement of 



24 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

the compulsory school attendance law; (5) the collec- 
tion of school statistics; and (6) the development of 
public educational sentiment. Unfortunately for our 
purposes, two of the three county superintendents took 
ofhce as late as July, 1918. Our description of the work 
of the superintendents applies therefore mainly to the 
superintendent who has been in the service almost 
a decade. 

While the state board of education prescribes the con- 
ditions on which certificates are issued, the county 
superintendents conduct the examinations, and, until 
this year, read and graded all the papers of candidates 
in their respective counties. For example, the superin- 
tendent of Sussex County in 191 7-18 examined and 
read, with very little outside assistance, the papers 
of 196 white and 10 colored teachers; 62 of the white 
teachers were examined twice in certain subjects. Simi- 
lar data are not available from the other counties, but 
the numbers examined were probably not so large. The 
reading and grading of papers in such numbers is a gruel- 
ing and time consuming task, of which the superintend- 
ents should be reHeved — in the first place, because they 
can employ their time to better advantage, and, again, 
because they should neither be exposed to the pressure 
frequently exerted to secure certificates for local candi- 
dates, nor handicapped by the opposition often aroused 
when local candidates fail. But there is a fundamental 
objection to the present practice. The certification of 
teachers is a state function, and as long as there are four 



COUNTY SCHOOL COMMISSIONS 25 

different portals to teaching — the state board and the 
three county superintendents — uniformity in standards 
cannot be obtained. 

Again, the law requires the county superintendent to 
spend with each teacher at least two hours annually, 
observing her work and assisting her, ^'to the end that 
improved methods of instruction and discipline are intro- 
duced in the schools." It is, however, humanly im- 
possible for a single superintendent to fulfill more than 
the letter of this law. New Castle County has, for ex- 
ample, a total of 197 teachers, 168 white and 29 colored, 
scattered over an area of 425 square miles.^ Kent 
County has a total of 235 teachers, 191 white and 44 
colored, scattered over 617 square miles; and Sussex 
County, a total of 302, 261 white and 41 colored, scat- 
tered over 913 square miles. In Sussex County the 
most the superintendent can do is to visit all the teachers, 
white and colored, once a year for an hour to an hour 
and a half, with an occasional short return visit when 
there is special need. To systematize observations and 
suggestions, the state board has prepared a blank cover- 
ing a number of vital points in instruction — the use 
of school time, the care of children's health and com- 
fort, etc. Such a blank is valuable both in directing 
the superintendents and in making clear to the teachers 
what is expected of them. The reports which the super- 
intendents have on file, and the consoHdated monthly 
reports to the state board, show that the superintendents 
^This allows 10 square miles for Wilmington. 



26 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

are earnest and conscientious in endeavoring to carry- 
out the law. But it is evident that the amount of atten- 
tion that the superintendent can give to any one teacher 
is too brief to be very helpful. At most, he can make a 
few pertinent suggestions, leaving the teacher (to apply 
them as best she can. 

Other common and well tried means of improving 
teachers in service are employed — teachers' institutes, 
group meetings at convenient centers during the school 
year; and, more recently, the six weeks summer school, at 
state expense. While these devices are all valuable 
they are far inferior to personal supervision, of which, 
as we have seen, there is in Delaware relatively Httle. 
Without proper supervision, the teacher is left unaided 
and alone to face the problems and difficulties of school 
management. In fact, good supervision is so important 
that, whatever else may be done — the school year 
lengthened, better school buildings and more generous 
equipment supplied, salaries raised, etc. — little improve- 
ment in instruction can be expected in the rural districts 
of Delaware, until intelligent supervision is provided. 
To this point we shall have occasion to return again and 
again in succeeding chapters. 

Of the remaining duties of the county superintendent, 
the most important is the enforcement of the compulsory 
school attendance law — a responsibihty which he divides 
with the district school committee and local boards of 
education. The law permits district committees and 
boards of education to appoint attendance officers. 



COUNTY SCHOOL COMMISSIONS 27 

but there is not a single attendance officer in all Dela- 
ware. In the absence of regular attendance officers, 
the law authorizes the clerk of the district committee 
or board of education to act in that capacity. Natur- 
ally, the school clerks, with rare exceptions, do nothing, 
for officials already otherwise occupied cannot be ex- 
pected to perform such services. The entire responsi- 
bility thus ultimately falls on the superintendents. 
Yet, without the necessary information, without clerical 
assistance, without a developed public sentiment, it is 
impossible for them to accomplish much. Obviously, 
a complete and up to date school census, that is, a list 
of all the children of compulsory school age, is the 
primary requisite. But Delaware takes no such census. 
The school clerk is supposed to report to the superintend- 
ent at the beginning of the school year all children of com- 
pulsory school age in his district, for which service he 
receives a dollar for each 100 names or fraction thereof. 
But, even after they have been corrected and supple- 
mented by the teachers, these lists are incomplete and 
unreliable. Nevertheless, they furnish all the informa- 
tion that superintendents possess. It is therefore not 
surprising to find that large numbers of children are ir- 
regular in attendance. The separate school districts 
are too small to employ attendance officers, school clerks 
cannot be expected to enforce the law, and the county 
superintendents have neither the necessary information 
nor the necessary time. It should, however, be added 
that under the leadership of the commissioner of educa- 



28 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

tion the county superintendents have recently been ex- 
ceedingly active in arousing the public to the importance 
of more regular school attendance. 

Finally, schools cannot be properly managed except 
in the Hght of full knowledge of educational conditions 
and needs. The school law of Delaware, recognizing 
this fact, specifically charges the county superintendents 
with the collection of school statistics. In consequence, 
there are on file in the office of each superintendent the 
names of the clerks of the several school districts, a list 
of the teachers employed, of the children of compulsory 
school age, as far as known, and a record of the last visit 
to each school. These data, important as far as they 
go, are far from covering the ground. There are no 
reports on enrollment and attendance, on ages and the 
grades of children, promotion and non-promotion, no 
examination records, and no complete financial state- 
ment. In short, the county superintendents are with- 
out definite, organized information on most of the import- 
ant aspects of school work. The pubHc is of course 
uninformed, for the superintendent issues no annual re- 
port, although two superintendents have in recent years 
made special reports on school buildings in New Castle 
and Kent counties. The failure of the superintendents 
to collect and file the information that should be found in 
such offices is due partly to the fact that they are super- 
visory and not administrative officers, partly to the fact 
that they are without clerical assistance and without 
filing facilities. Meanwhile, the information in question 



COUNTY SCHOOL COMMISSIONS 29 

is essential to good supervision and effective administra- 
tion. 

To conclude: The county school commissions do not 
occupy a position of leadership in county educational 
affairs and cannot exert a decisive control over the 
schools. The county superintendents are practically 
the sole centers of county-wide influence. Yet even they 
are at present in no position to effect any marked im- 
provement in pubHc education. The relations between 
the county school commission and the county super- 
intendent must be revised, the powers of both greatly 
increased, and means of enforcing a progressive school 
policy provided. 



V. DISTRICT SCHOOL COMMITTEES AND 
BOARDS OF EDUCATION 

THE district school committees and local boards 
of education are the bodies most closely in con- 
tact with the schools. The distinction between 
them is not fundamental. The former has jurisdic- 
tion over a rural district, which usually contains a single 
one room school; the latter, over an incorporated district, 
usually a town or city, although there are a few incorporat- 
ed districts in the open country. The district school com- 
mittees operate under the general school laws of the 
state, and are uniformly composed of a clerk and two 
members, elected by the people for terms of three years. 
Boards of education, on the other hand, while subject 
to certain sections of the general school law, usually 
operate under separate special acts. While these acts 
have some features in common, no two are exactly 
alike. Boards of education thus differ more or less as to 
membership, mode of election, terms of ofhce, powers 
to acquire and hold property for educational purposes, 
to raise money, etc. 

Local committees and local boards of education might, 
under a proper system, be important factors in develop- 
ing good schools. But the power of the local school 

30 



COMMITTEES AND BOARDS OF EDUCATION 31 

authorities is so limited that they can scarcely do more 
than keep the schools alive; to advance their efficiency 
is next to impossible. The reasons are plain. The law 
imposes on local committees and boards various duties 
in the way of general direction, inspection, and supervi- 
sion. For example, they are expected to (a) prescribe 
rules and regulations for the conduct of the schools, (b) 
prescribe rules and regulations safeguarding and pro- 
moting the health of the children, (c) see that all children 
are instructed in physiology and hygiene, (d) see that the 
constitutions of the United States and Delaware are 
taught, (e) see that each school is provided with a flag 
and with maps of the United States and Delaware, 
(f) visit the schools at least four times a year, etc. Lay 
school officials, mostly without executive assistance, 
cannot themselves perform such duties. Meanwhile, 
the local units are, with rare exceptions, too small and 
therefore financially too weak to employ as their agents 
superintendents or supervisors who might administer 
and oversee. 

Again, the powers of local school authorities over busi- 
ness matters — power to provide grounds, buildings, 
and equipment, employ teachers, fix their salaries, dis- 
miss them, etc. — are apparent rather than real. Power 
really rests with the voters of the district. For example, 
the district school committees cannot actually engage a 
teacher, cannot provide school grounds and buildings, 
without a majority vote of the district. On their own 
initiative, they can levy and collect annually only $100; 



32 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

the voters of the district must sanction every additional 
cent. Thus a popular referendum must be taken as to 
whether a teacher's salary shall be increased from $45 
to $50 a month, whether a heater shall be purchased, or 
the schoolhouse repainted. The necessity of submitting 
to popular vote almost every detail of school manage- 
ment involving expenditure results in educational paraly- 
sis. Here and there the members of a district committee 
carry on a continuous campaign among their neighbors 
for greater liberality in school expenditure. But most 
committees are content to follow the line of least re- 
sistance — that is, they conduct the schools at a minimum 
cost to the taxpayers. Active men, capable of bearing 
responsibility, are reluctant to accept a post to which 
so little genuine responsibility is attached. 

Boards of education are in practically the same posi- 
tion. The amount of money they can raise is strictly 
limited. One board has power to employ only a single 
teacher. At every session of the legislature bills are 
introduced to increase the money raising power of the 
school boards, but even in such cases, the proposal usu- 
ally falls short of the pressing needs of the schools at the 
time. 

We have already called attention to the fact that a 
rural school district is usually limited to a single room 
school. As a result of this extreme subdivision, Delaware 
is divided into 292 white school districts, 88 colored dis- 
tricts, and 44 incorporated districts, a total of 424 small 
educational republics, managed by 1,399 school officials. 



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COMMITTEES AND BOARDS OF EDUCATION s^ 

who, with the exception of the clerks, serve without pay. 
In creating these 424 independent educational units, one 
question has been asked: Are there enough children 
in the proposed district to warrant the building of a one 
room schoolhouse and the employment of one teacher? 
Now, a school in the full sense of the term is decidedly 
more than merely a rectangular room and a teacher. 
No district, large or small, should be a separate school 
unit unless it is large enough to perform the functions 
of a separate educational unit, that is, financially able, 
after contributing its due proportion to financing the 
educational program of the state and county, to provide 
schools of a standard elementary and high school grade, 
with adequate grounds, buildings, and equipment, well 
trained teachers, and the requisite administrative direc- 
tion and control. On this basis, not to exceed two or 
three of the largest towns in any one of the three counties 
could quaHfy as a separate school district. Created 
without regard to educational requirements or financial 
ability, the 424 educational units of Delaware, having 
no responsibility for the status of education in the state, 
the county, or even in the adjoining district, go their 
own way, thinking narrowly of their own educational 
needs. 

No wonder that popular interest in education is slight. 
The annual district school meeting is, with occasional 
exceptions, poorly attended, unless strong differences 
of opinion arise over the choice of a teacher or additional 
school expenditures. Otherwise, not more than one 



34 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

in six voters is present. Indeed, the usual number in 
the rural districts is about ten,^ including the three school 
officials. In one instance, when the annual district 
meeting was called to order, only two patrons were pres- 
ent — a father and his son-in-law, both members of the 
district school committee; they elected a son of the 
father to the committee as clerk and then proceeded to 
employ the daughter of the father — although she had no 
certificate — as teacher for the ensuing year. 

Unsupported by anything approaching an active in- 
terest in education, the district school committees and 
local boards of education are similarly perfunctory in 
their attitude. Burdened with duties which they cannot 
discharge and without power in fields where they might 
act, what they can do is too petty to attract and hold the 
interest of strong men. The district school committees 
rarely hold more than one formal meeting a year. Such 
other business as they transact is transacted informally 
as they may happen to meet, now here, now there. 
Boards of education, with few exceptions, do Httle better. 
They as a rule have one or two formal meetings to fix the 
tax levy and to employ teachers, but subsequently it is 
impossible, for months at a time, to bring the members 
together, even when the matters at issue are pressing 
and important. 

Under the district system the amount of effort neces- 
sary to carry a reform of even the simplest character is 
prohibitive. Recent attempts to improve the heating 

iSee Appendix, Table I, page 99. 



COMMITTEES AND BOARDS OF EDUCATION 35 

of one room schools furnishes an example in point. The 
old method of heating these buildings is by means of an 
open stove in the center of the room. While children 
sitting near the stoves are too hot, those at a distance 
complain that they are *' freezing." A modern heater 
ensures a uniform temperature in all parts of a room 
and ventilates it as well. There is no question of 
the superiority of the heater to the open stove; yet, to 
introduce heaters into all the one room schools of Dela- 
ware it would be necessary not only to convince 325 
different district school committees, but also to convince 
a majority of the voters of each district, for the question of 
purchasing a heater has to be submitted to the annual 
district meeting. Faced by this impossible task, it is 
not surprising that the county superintendents have 
labored for years to introduce heaters into the rural dis- 
tricts, with only partial success. Under centralized 
control, it would be necessary to convince only a single 
board; if the board's decision were favorable, heaters 
would be promptly introduced, as needed, everywhere. 

Again, under the district system, difficult as it is to 
achieve a progressive end, it is still more difficult to 
maintain it. To illustrate : A certain district experienced 
some ten years ago an educational revival. The people 
constructed and equipped one of the best one room school 
buildings in the state and engaged a well trained and ex- 
perienced teacher. For a time they had a good school. 
But, left to themselves, without effective general or local 
direction, interest cooled. The schoolhouse is now in 



S6 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

ill repair, and the school is very poor. At another point, 
there was constructed some ten years ago what is even 
now a fairly good school building; but the board of 
education is so hampered in the matter of providing funds 
that few well trained teachers are employed. The district 
in question has therefore a good school plant, but a poor 
school. 

The district system has other equally serious defects. 
Inevitably it makes for excessively wide differences in 
educational opportunities and in school tax burdens. 
In one district the schools are open nine months, in an- 
other, eight months, and in still another, seven months.^ 
Likewise, in one district the school poll tax is $2.00, in 
another, $6.00.^ Again, the property school tax in one 
district is 7 cents on the hundred dollars, and in another 
district, 100 cents .^ Thus inequality reigns where 
sound policy requires something approaching uniformity. 
The truth is the district system represents pioneer con- 
ditions. It goes back to the time when an isolated 
group, desiring some sort of school for its children, 
pooled its meager resources in order to establish a neigh- 
borhood school. Increased wealth, larger numbers, 
improved communication, more complicated educational 
requirements render the district system obsolete. 

A qualified county system should displace the present 
district system. At its head should be a county board 



^See Appendix, Table II, page 99. 
^See Appendix, Table III, page 100. 
^See Appendix, Table IV, page loi. 



COMMITTEES AND BOARDS OF EDUCATION 37 

of education, elected by the people, vested with large 
powers and directed to establish and to maintain efficient 
schools. The entire county, with exceptions to be noted, 
would thus become the unit, all the county schools 
forming a system, in the development of which intelli- 
gence and design may be employed. With the total 
county school tax, plus the state dividends, something 
like statesmanship may be exercised in locating, erecting, 
equipping, and consolidating schools. Educational op- 
portunities can thus be more or less equalized throughout 
the county. The revenues of the board and the size of 
its field would warrant the employment of a competent 
staff, consisting of county superintendent, supervisors, 
attendance officer, and clerks. County education thus 
organized would attract to the county board the ablest 
and most public spirited citizens of the community. 

A county system of this type would not, however, 
involve the abolition of district school committees and 
local boards of education; these local school officials could 
still be utilized, though with modified powers and duties. 
The more populous and wealthy centers should be erected 
into separate school districts, provided they fulfill certain 
specified requirements as to the grade of schools to be 
maintained, the grounds, buildings, and equipment to 
be provided, the preparation of the teachers to be em- 
ployed, and the administrative direction and supervision 
to be supplied. Such a county system would thus per- 
mit the larger towns to enjoy local educational autonomy, 
and at the same time secure to the smaller towns, villages. 



38 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

and the open country the benefits of a centralized or- 
ganization. 

In conclusion, it is only fair to remind ourselves that 
the district school committees and local boards of edu- 
cation should not be held to too strict an account if 
they have not performed effectively the duties imposed 
upon them, and have permitted the schools, as a rule, 
to eke out a miserable existence. The fault rests with 
the system under which they work — that is, with the 
state. Delaware does not conceive of education as a 
general function to be exercised and directed by the 
state. It is viewed, rather, as a local concern. Indeed, 
the term ^^free public schools" has never meant in Dela- 
ware and does not now mean much more than that 
separate communities are permitted to provide schools 
at limited public expense. The state has enacted certain 
general laws; it has created the above mentioned execu- 
tive and supervisory boards; it pays the tuition of certain 
pupils in graded schools, and apportions a small sum to 
each committee or local board for each teacher employed. 
But its general laws are narrow in scope and ineffec- 
tively applied; its executive and supervisory boards 
have no way of enforcing large and expanding school 
policies; its financial requirement of the separate districts 
does not ensure decent schools. Too much is left to the 
unconstrained initiative of small local units. The state 
has not frankly recognized its responsibility for framing an 
adequate policy and creating the organs, state and local, 
through which a sound policy may beprogressively realized. 



VI. THE TEACHERS ' 

THE schools of Delaware, like those of other states, 
require teachers of different types: one type for 
the graded city school, a somewhat different type 
for the ungraded rural school, still other types for special 
subjects in elementary and high schools — such subjects, 
for example, as physical training, science, Latin, manual 
training, etc. Differentiation of function should imply 
specialization in training. That is, those who are to 
teach different subjects should be differently trained. 
The length and character of the training required by each 
of the several necessary types are not easy to fix. Yet it 
is commonly understood as the goal to be aimed at that 
teachers in the elementary schools, city or country, 
ought to possess high school education, followed by two 
years of normal school training; and that high school 
teachers should have passed through college with a 
certain amount of special training in the particular 
branches they are engaged in teaching. 

Delaware issues four kinds of teacher certificates: (i) 
primary and kindergarten certificates, vahd in the kinder- 
garten and the first three grades of the elementary school; 
(2) elementary certificates, limited and permanent, valid 
in the elementary schools; (3) high school certificates, 

39 



40 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

limited and permanent, valid in the high schools; and 
(4) normal and college graduate certificates, limited and 
permanent, valid in all schools of the state. Besides 
these regular certificates, permits or provisional certi- 
ficates are used in emergencies. The various certificates 
require different degrees of academic and professional 
preparation. 

As nearly as can be ascertained, there are now in Dela- 
ware 734 teachers. Cards asking for information about 
the certificates held, training or preparation, etc., were 
addressed to all teachers, but returns have been re- 
ceived from only 651, or approximately 90 per cent, of 
the number. Nevertheless, on the basis of data thus 
obtained it appears that of the 651 teachers reporting, 
only 127 or 20 per cent, hold normal or college graduate 
certificates, 80 hold provisional certificates, and 358 
limited elementary certificates; that is, 67 per cent, hold 
the very lowest grade of certificate issued.^ 

This is not surprising in view of the preparation or 
training disclosed. Of the teachers reporting, 81 are 
classified as high school teachers. The preparation of 
these high school teachers ranges from two years spent 
as student in a high school to a full college course; only 
43 per cent, of them can be regarded as qualified to under- 
take high school instruction. The elementary teachers 
in incorporated districts are even less well equipped. 
Only 43 out of the 190 reporting, or 23 per cent., reach an 
acceptable standard of training, while 84, or 44 per cent., 
^See Appendix, Table V, page 102. 




^ 









M 



THE TEACHERS 41 

have not completed a high school course. Teachers in 
the rural elementary schools make a still more unfavor- 
able showing. In general, they are products of rural 
schools, and of high schools which give one, two, or 
three year courses. Of the 291 reporting, only 18, or 
6 per cent., have had full normal training or its equiva- 
lent, 42, or 14 per cent., have never advanced beyond the 
grades, and 139 others, or 48 per cent., have had only 
part of a high school course. Of the elementary teachers, 
the colored teachers appear to be relatively the best pre- 
pared; 40 out of 89 reporting, or 45 per cent., are normal 
school graduates or have had part or all of a college 
course.^ Figure i shows the proportion of teachers well 
prepared, and the proportion ill prepared. 

The teachers of Delaware are not only deficient in re- 
spect to training, they are in the main immature. Of 
the 651 reporting, 152, or 23 per cent., are under twenty- 
one years of age.^ Nor is the number of older teachers 
large; only 27 are fifty years of age and older. 

As is generally true throughout the country, the teach- 
ers are mostly new to the system. Good school work 
involves a knowledge of community needs. Newcom- 
ers are at a disadvantage in this respect. Of the 
651 teachers under consideration, 160, or 25 per cent., 
entered the system this year. Only 38 per cent, of the 
entire number of those regarding whom we obtained in- 



^See Appendix, Table VI, page 103. 
2See Appendix, Table VII, page 104. 



42 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

Figure i 
Preparation of Teachers, 1918-19 

High Schools Incorporated Schools 




Rural Schools 



Colored Schools 




THE TEACHERS 43 

formation have been in the system five years or more.^ 
Conditions may be somewhat unusual at this time, but 
in any case the annual loss is large. The number of new 
white teachers (including Wilmington) in 191 6-1 7 is 
stated to have been 158, 35 in the incorporated and 123 
in the rural districts. Again, the tenure of teachers al- 
ready in the system is short and shifting of position is 
common. While 160 of the present teaching force are 
new, 245 hold new positions, 109 are in their second year 
in the same position, and 68 in their third.^ Thus, within 
the system there is constant flux, unfavorable to con- 
tinuity of instruction. 

That Delaware has a body of teachers so poorly trained 
and so unstable is due in part at least to two factors : low 
annual salaries and inadequate provisions for teacher 
training, particularly for the training of elementary 
teachers. The present monthly salaries of teachers in 
Delaware are not bad, there having been a notable in- 
crease even over 1917-1918. Thus the median monthly 
wage of high school teachers — all principals except 8 be- 
ing included — is $90, approximately half receiving more 
and half receiving less; of elementary teachers in in- 
corporated districts, $65; of rural teachers, $60; and of 
colored teachers, $45. But the school term is so brief 
that annual salaries are low even though monthly salaries 
are fair. As few schools in incorporated districts run 
more than nine months, high school teachers receive a 

^See Appendix, Table VIII, page 105. 

2See Appendix, Table IX, page 106. 



44 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

median annual salary of approximately $8io, elementary 
teachers a median annual salary of about $585. Rural 
teachers receive a median annual salary of approximately 
$420. The median annual salary of colored teachers is 
approximately $315.^ These salaries will not attract well 
trained and experienced teachers. 

Equally fundamental is the problem of training teach- 
ers. From the establishment of public schools in 1829 
until 1903 prospective teachers were left to their own re- 
sources to get such training as they could. After 1903 
and until 191 5, an annual appropriation ranging from 
$1,000 to $1,500 was made to each of the counties to pay 
the tuition of prospective teachers in the normal schools 
of other states. A small number of normal school grad- 
uates has been thus obtained. With the opening of the 
Women's College of Delaware, this appropriation lapsed, 
on the assumption that this institution would undertake 
teacher training. 

The Women's College now offers two courses in educa- 
tion: one, a four year course for high school teachers, 
the other, a two year course for elementary teachers. 
The enrollment in these courses is now as follows: 



Four year course- 




Two year course- 




Seniors 


3 






Juniors 


5 






Sophomores 


4 


First Year 





Freshmen 


6 


Second Year 


2 


Total 


18 


Total 


2 



^See Appendix, Table X, page io6a. 



THE TEACHERS 45 

The graduates of these courses to date number 14 (2 in 
1916, I in 191 7, and 11 in 1918). Of these 2 are now 
teaching, but as this number will undoubtedly increase, 
it seems reasonable to believe that the Women's College 
of Delaware will furnish high school teachers and teachers 
of domestic arts to meet the demand. 

A similar function in respect to the training of men 
for high school posts falls naturally to Delaware College. 
We have stated that high school teachers should be 
college graduates, who have devoted part of their time to 
professional studies. This is as true of the old-line 
studies, such as mathematics, Latin, literature, history, 
science, as of the newer activities, such as agriculture and 
the industrial and household arts. To add educational 
courses where college courses in different subjects are 
already available requires additional provision only on 
the professional side. Hence, the state may confidently 
look to the Women's College and to Delaware College 
to train its high school teachers. 

Adequate provision for the training of elementary 
teachers, particularly in the rural schools, has yet to 
be made. Such provision should at this time include 
intensive instruction in the subject matter which elemen- 
tary school teachers must present, viz., arithmetic, 
penmanship, geography. United States history, drawing, 
handwork, etc., for the present graduates of the elemen- 
tary and high schools are not proficient enough in these 
fundamental subjects to begin teaching them without 
further drill and instruction. In addition, the pros- 



46 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

pective teachers should receive a certain amount of 
simple, practical training in the methods of teaching the 
common school subjects and in school management. 
The work should be organized and conducted in 
sympathy with village and rural life; and for obvious 
reasons the cost to the student should be low. Between 
75 and loo teachers trained in this way should be 
available annually, for a majority of the elementary 
teachers now in service must be gradually displaced by 
trained teachers, and a supply of trained teachers must 
also be at hand to take the place of teachers dropping 
from the system. 

Improved facilities should also be provided for 
the training of colored teachers. This, however, can be 
readily done. The State College for Colored Students 
has for some years offered a training course for colored 
teachers. Although this school emphasizes the me- 
chanical and industrial arts, 55 per cent, of its graduates, 
from 1898 to 1 91 6, have become teachers; 40 of these 
are now teaching in the colored schools of the state.^ 
The present training course is, however, far from satis- 
factory; its standards are too low, its faciUties inade- 
quate. Improvement in both these respects can be 
readily effected. The immediate need reduces itself 
to an additional teacher and a small practice school. 
To what extent additional appropriations would at once 
be necessary, we are unable to state. The school has 
a fair income — $18,000. Of this sum less than 43 per 
^See Catalogue of the State College for Colored Students for 191 7. 





]■ 




m\\~&r% .SK^ 1 , ; 


* . 


ml mm SH-I '^"i 

■ 1 an- «n m ■ ^ 


Mi^^^BI^SflHHHH^^H^II 








11 



o 



THE TEACHERS 47 

cent, goes to salaries; the accounts are not so kept as to 
make clear in detail how the remainder is expended. 
It seems, however, not improbable that a financial re- 
organization might result in such economies that the 
additional teacher now required might be carried without 
additional state appropriation. 

The upshot of the present chapter may be briefly 
summarized. Delaware is without the means of training 
teachers for its elementary schools. Its teaching corps 
is therefore largely ill trained and distinctly underpaid. 
The state cannot hope to have an adequate staff of good 
teachers in the elementary schools unless it provides 
proper facilities for their training and pays such salaries 
as competent teachers require for their support. 



VII. THE SCHOOLS AND THEIR WORK 

WE HAVE now discussed the main factors that 
determine the kind and the grade of the 
schools provided and the quality of the class- 
room instruction — organization, supervision, and teach- 
ing sta^ff. We have lea;rned that the organization does 
not provide the necessary central direction and control; 
that school authorities are powerless to finance good 
schools; that supervision is negligible; and that the 
teachers as a class are ill prepared, few having sufficient 
training to enable them to do satisfactory school work. 
Under these conditions, a liberal program of studies, 
up to date plants, and good teaching cannot be expected. 
As stated before, the public schools of Delaware are 
of two grades — elementary schools (grades i to 8, in- 
clusive) and high schools (grades 9 to 12, inclusive). 
While the programs of elementary and high schools are 
separate, they nevertheless form a single whole. The 
present course of study for elementary schools, pre- 
scribed in 1 9 13 by the state board of education, repre- 
sents a decided advance over previous courses of study. 
The earlier courses assigned the work for the several 
grades on the basis of certain pages to be covered in the 
adopted textbooks. The 1913 course of study confined 

48 



THE SCHOOLS AND THEIR WORK 49 

itself to defining aims and suggesting the larger topics 
of instruction and methods of treatment. Carefully 
studied and conscientiously followed, this course of 
study would undoubtedly exert a beneficial effect on 
classroom work. Unfortunately, few teachers outside of 
the larger centers are able, left to themselves as they 
are, to interpret and apply these directions. They 
need guidance and supervision and this the present 
system does not supply. The result is that prescribed 
textbooks, literally followed, constitute the course of 
study in the elementary schools of Delaware. 

The list of prescribed texts is unusually broad and 
includes both old and recent texts. In the rural schools 
the teachers, to whom the choice is left, occasionally 
select the more modern texts; in the main, however, 
the older books are retained. 

The studies prescribed for the several grades are as 
follows : 

Grade i: Reading, writing, spelling, language, number, elementary 

science (including physiology and hygiene, and kindness 

to animals). 
Grade 2: Reading, writing, spelling, language, number, elementary 

science (as in grade i). 
Grade 3: Reading, writing, spelling, language, arithmetic, elementary 

science (now also including oral geography). 
Grade 4: Reading, writing, spelling, language, arithmetic, geography, 

physiology and hygiene, and kindness to animals. 
Grade 5: Reading, writing, spelling, language, arithmetic, geography, 

history, physiology and hygiene, and kindness to animals. 
Grade 6: Reading, writing, spelling, language, arithmetic, geography, 

history, physiology and hygiene, and kindness to animals. 
Grade 7: Reading (may now be literature), writing, spelling, grammar, 



so PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

arithmetic, geography, history, physiology and hygiene, ele- 
mentary agriculture. 
Grade 8: Reading or literature, writing, spelling, language, arithmetic, 
geography, history, civil government, elementary agricul- 
ture. 

This program covers the general range of subjects 
usually taught in elementary schools. The place of 
prominence is given to the three R's, to geography and 
history, and to physiology and hygiene. The only 
modern subjects are elementary science in the primary 
grades and elementary agriculture in the two highest 
grades. In point of fact, however, elementary science 
is scarcely taught at all, while agriculture receives but 
scant attention. In consequence, the present elementary 
course is in effect an antiquated type of school program. 
It makes no provision for activities now regarded as 
essential to a well rounded elementary education — for 
example, handwork, physical training, music and draw- 
ing, cooking and sewing for girls, and manual work 
for boys. Of course, rural schools could not be expected 
to do justice to all these activities, but in Delaware 
they are neglected not only in rural, but almost equally 
in village and city schools. 

The present high school program was prescribed by 
the state board of education in 191 5, and is as follows: 

NUMBER OF 
SUBJECT UNIT CREDITS 

ENGLISH \ ... >* 4 

(Composition, rhetoric, literature, read- 
ing of classics. Spelling and reading 
should receive one-fifth of the time) 



THE SCHOOLS AND THEIR WORK 51 

NUMBER OF 
SUBJECT UNIT CREDITS 

MATHEMATICS 

Algebra ^ 

Plane geometry i 

Solid geometry 2 

Arithmetic 2 

HISTORY AND CIVICS ^ 

United States history 2 

United States civics and Delaware civics | 

Ancient history 2 

Medieval history 2 

Modern history 2 

English history ^ 

LANGUAGES 

Latin 4 

German^ 2 

French ^ 

NATURAL SCIENCES 

Physics ^ 

Chemistry ^ 

General science ^ 

Physical geography 2 

Physiology and hygiene 2 

Botany 2 

Zoology .' " . * 2 

Biology ^ 

Geology 2 

Astronomy 2 

VOCATIONAL BRANCHES 

Domestic branches ^ 

Agriculture i or 2 

Manual training ^ 

Commercial law 2 

Commercial geography 2 

Shorthand 2 

Bookkeeping 2 or i 

T3^ewriting 2 

Penmanship 2 

Lfiy action of the state board of education, German has been dropped. 



52 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

To adapt this program to high schools of different 
sizes, three courses are outlined — one for a ''ten unit" 
high school offering two years of work, one for a ''fifteen 
unit" high school offering three years of work, and one 
for a "twenty unit" high school offering four years of 
work. Only four year high schools are expected to carry 
something Hke the full program given above. 

These different courses are noteworthy in several 
respects. In the first place, none of them requires 
Latin. Latin is an elective or an alternative. Never- 
theless, the great majority of Delaware high schools, 
whether they offer two, three, or four year courses, 
require all first year students to take Latin. How- 
ever, the numbers dwindle rapidly from year to year. 

Secondly, as is proper in view of their significance 
in modern life, large place is given to the natural sciences, 
ten different courses being prescribed. Despite these 
liberal prescriptions, the high schools teach Httle science. 
Not more than three high schools in the state have any- 
thing approaching satisfactory laboratory equipment, 
with the result that the science is mostly textbook 
science. 

Thirdly, little prominence is given to the practical 
branches, such as domestic science and art for girls and 
manual training and agriculture for boys. Until last 
year there were not more than two high schools in the 
state that provided any work at all for girls in the house- 
hold arts, and only one or two attempted manual training 
and agriculture for boys. However, the acceptance 



THE SCHOOLS AND THEIR WORK 53 

by the state of the provisions of the Smith-Hughes law 
will doubtless emphasize in the future the vocational 
branches. It is also to be noted that physical education 
is entirely ignored. 

Finally, the state course of study prescribes the 
minimum number of -teachers that may be employed — 
in a *^ ten unit" high school, at least one full time teacher, 
in a ''fifteen unit" high school, at least one and a half 
full time teachers, and in a ''twenty unit" high school, 
at least two full time teachers. When making these 
requirements, the state board of education was aware 
of the fact that satisfactory high school work cannot 
possibly be done with the minimum staff required, but 
even these inadequate requirements marked a decided 
advance. 

The high school course of study, with the exceptions 
noted, thus corresponds closely to the conventional 
scheme. Even so, it is doubtful whether there are even 
two standard four year high schools in the entire state. 
Deplorable as this situation is, it must be remembered 
that the state has never directly offered financial induce- 
ments to the development of high schools. Without 
such inducements, high schools will grow as slowly in 
the future as in the past. 

With the rural schools attempting nothing beyond 
the conventional studies, with no provisions for child 
welfare — such as warm luncheons, directed play, etc. — 
or, except recently, for community activities, it is not 
surprising that the rural schoolhouses of Delaware are 



54 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

of a very old and conventional type. The nearest 
approach in all the state to a modern one room rural 
school building is the school in District No. 34, New 
Castle County.^ This building is of cement block, 
with a basement, an attractive front porch, cloakrooms 
for both boys and girls, and a classroom of standard size. 
The walls of the classroom are tastefully decorated with 
good pictures; there are new single desks, window shades, 
slate blackboards, teacher's desk, oak glass-faced book- 
case, an organ, and a basement furnace. Yet, even 
here, there are evidences of lack of thought and knowl- 
edge. The classroom is lighted in the old-fashioned 
way, from three sides, instead of from one; there is no 
artificial lighting, so that it cannot be used in the evenings 
for community gatherings; there are no provisions for 
industrial work for boys and cooking for girls, for serving 
hot luncheons to the children, and no inside play space 
for use in inclement weather. The grounds are small 
and uneven, providing neither space for demonstration 
beds in the teaching of elementary science and agricul- 
ture, nor playgrounds equipped with appropriate play 
apparatus. 

There are practically no recent buildings in either 
Kent or New Castle County. In Sussex County, where 
a number of rural schoolhouses have been built lately, 
attempts made by the county superintendent to intro- 
duce modern features have mostly failed. District 
school committees have not yet learned that a rural 

^See illustration opposite page 8. 



THE SCHOOLS AND^THEIR WORK 55 

school should be more than a single rectangular room. 
Even when the county superintendent has enlightened 
the board, it is next to impossible to get things done. 
For example, unilateral lighting — lighting from one side — 
was attempted in two or three of the new buildings, but 
the actual lighting is a queer mixture; not one of these 
new buildings is properly constructed.^ The failure in 
Sussex County to secure proper lighting proves the 
necessity of placing in the hands of the state board of 
education final control over building plans and specifica- 
tions. 

The one room rural school plants in Delaware, of 
which there are 327, are, therefore, with rare exceptions, 
of the conventional type. Some of them have a small 
entrance porch and small cloakrooms for boys and girls,^ 
but they usually consist of a single rectangular room, 
which serves alike for school work, cloakroom, luncheon 
room, and play. The buildings are painted all colors; 
many of them are in bad repair; the lighting is almost 
always poor; about half are still heated by an ordinary 
stove; few of them have the arrangements needed for 
washing hands and faces. The seats are usually old- 
fashioned double desks; equipment is limited to a 
blackboard — generally slate — an inexpensive map of 
Delaware, a map of the United States, and a bird chart. 
The building situation in the villages having two 
and even three room schools is equally unsatisfactory. 

^See illustration opposite page 66. 
2 See illustration opposite page 32. 



56 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

The prevailing t3^e of schoolhouse is the old two story 
rectangular building.^ Nor is the situation much better 
in the larger towns, conditions being rather worse 
in New Castle and Sussex counties than in Kent 
County. With the exception of the DuPont school — 
which belongs in a class by itself — there is only one town 
building in the state that may be called modern, viz., 
the new consolidated Caesar Rodney school.^ This 
building embodies an unusual number of modern ideas 
in school architecture. The classrooms are lighted 
from one side; there is a rest room for teachers, another 
for children, and an office for the principal. Two class- 
rooms, lighted from one side, end on end, divided by a 
sliding door, serve for the high school study hall, the 
school auditorium, and for community gatherings. The 
basement contains an attractive laboratory for the 
teaching of the household arts, with similar provisions 
for the teaching of natural science and agriculture. The 
school also has a good sized gymnasium, with shower 
baths and locker rooms for boys and girls. The grounds 
comprise about seven acres, ample for frontal park pur- 
poses, playgrounds and athletic field, and for garden work. 
The buildings at Bridgeville, Greenwood, and Harring- 
ton^ are good structures, mainly on old lines; those at 
Smyrna,^ Dover, and Milford are fair, although the light- 



^See illustration opposite page 8. 
^See illustration opposite page 46. 
^See illustration opposite page 52. 
*See illustration opposite page 60. 



THE SCHOOLS AND THEIR WORK 57 

ing, particularly in the older parts at Milford, is bad, and 
the fire hazard considerable. Otherwise, the building 
situation in the larger towns of both New Castle 
County and Sussex County is critical. For example, 
in New Castle County the Middletown schools occupy 
the old academy building,* which, while good enough in 
its day, is wholly inadequate for present purposes; venti- 
lation and lighting are particularly bad. At New Castle 
the public schools are housed partly in the city hall, 
partly in the old United States arsenal, partly in the old 
academy building, and partly in a two room building 
(one room above the other). Not one of these buildings 
is fit for school use. Similarly at Newark, the primary 
school occupies an old brick structure with inadequate 
lighting and ventilation; the grammar grades occupy a 
building lately erected, of pleasing exterior, but bad in- 
terior, while the high school occupies the old academy 
building, long since outgrown, which is a fire trap, poorly 
ventilated and Hghted. 

The situation in Sussex County is quite as critical. 
For example, at Georgetown, Laurel, and Seaford the 
buildings are old, rambling, wooden structures, which 
have been added to from time to time. Lighting and 
ventilation are bad, and the fire hazard, serious. This 
is particularly true at Seaford.- 

In certain instances the situation is complicated by 
the fact that buildings which should at this moment be 

^See illustration opposite page 66. 
2 See illustration opposite page 70. 



58 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

either altered or replaced are still unpaid for. At Mil- 
ford $25,000 was borrowed when the present struc- 
ture was erected, not one penny of which has been 
liquidated. Similarly at Newark, $10,000 was bor- 
rowed when the present grammar school was built, all 
still outstanding; in fact, there has never been interest 
enough at Newark even to complete this building, the 
children being permitted year after year to walk through 
a muddy, unfinished basement. With the exceptions 
noted, the building condition in the larger towns and 
cities demands immediate action. 

Poor organization, inadequate supervision, ill prepared 
teachers, conventional programs, poor school buildings 
and equipment — these untoward conditions are all re- 
flected in the quality of the classroom instruction. In 
Delaware, as elsewhere, there is here and there a born 
teacher, who, rising above her surroundings, does good 
work; but such teachers do not redeem a situation which 
may in general terms be characterized as highly unsatis- 
factory. 

In the course of the field work, in round terms a hun- 
dred one room rural schools, white and colored, were vis- 
ited. Of the entire number only one could be called 
really good. The physical surroundings of this school 
at the time when the present teacher was engaged were 
altogether unfavorable. The schoolhouse, located on a 
small lot, is one of the few old stone buildings still stand- 
ing/ and its furnishings were of obsolete type. The new 

^See illustration opposite page 78. 



THE SCHOOLS AND THEIR WORK 59 

teacher, now in the third year of her service, persuaded 
the district school committee to give her the $10 usually 
spent at the beginning of the year to put the schoolhouse 
in order. With this $10 she employed a woman to clean 
the schoolhouse, and with the help of an interested patron 
tastefully calcimined the interior of the building. Later, 
an entertainment provided funds for window shades and 
sash curtains. A carnival reseated the schoolhouse 
with single, adjustable desks. Another entertainment 
purchased an unabridged dictionary and dictionary 
holder. The local grange lent an organ. Thus, within 
two years, the entire interior of this old stone building 
was transformed into a cosy workroom. 

Perhaps a fourth of the rural schools visited give a 
good type of old-fashioned instruction. The children 
are rigorously held to their texts; no use is made of the 
experiences gained at home, on the farm, or in their en- 
vironment; nevertheless the pupils are in a fair way to 
master a substantial body of information and are receiv- 
ing what would formerly have been called a good elemen- 
tary schooling. 

The remaining rural schools are poor. The teachers, 
after one or two and occasionally three years in the neigh- 
boring high school, merely go through the motions of 
school keeping. It must be admitted that war conditions, 
as well as influenza, have this fall disorganized the 
schools to an unusual degree. Yet, so far as the work 
observed is concerned, very little difference could be per- 
ceived in the schools in question between the quality of 



6o PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

the instruction of teachers who had just entered the ser- 
vice or who had returned after an absence of some years 
and the instruction of teachers who had been continu- 
ously in service. 

Nor is the poor quality of the instruction due alto- 
gether to inadequate supervision. The professional prep- 
aration of many of these teachers is so defective that 
even good supervision will not make good teachers 
of them. The first recourse in such a situation must 
be to more and better training. Even assuming 
better training, better supervision, and consolidation as 
far as possible, the problem of such one room schools as 
remain is not easy. One teacher is compelled to handle 
in the course of the day pupils belonging to each of the 
eight elementary grades. The school day is accord- 
ingly divided into twenty or thirty recitation periods, 
varying from ten to fifteen minutes in length. Under 
such conditions, the best teachers can do little more than 
hear children recite. Now, a study of the enrollment in 
rural schools shows that a great majority of the children 
are in the lower classes, with one or two pupils, seldom 
more, in each of the uppermost two grades.^ Frequently 
one third of the entire school day is given to the instruc- 
tion of three or four advanced pupils, to the obvious neg- 
lect of the younger children. If the usual work of the 
district schools were confined to the first six grades, and 
provision made for all pupils who have completed the 

^For example, in Kent County, of a rural school enrollment in 191 7-18 
of 2,495, only 33^) oi' 14 pe^ cent., were in the seventh and eighth grades. 



THE SCHOOLS AND THEIR WORK 6i 

sixth grade to attend the nearest graded school, such 
pupils would be thrown in contact with more children of 
their own age and the rural teacher would be able to con- 
centrate her attention and energies on the children of the 
lower grades. Some such rearrangement of the work 
of the rural schools is much to be desired. The payment 
at the present time by the state of the tuition in neigh- 
boring graded schools of a limited number of pupils who 
have completed the sixth grade in their home school is a 
step in this direction. 

In respect to quality of instruction, the situation in the 
larger towns is better. Yet, the best that can be said 
of their elementary schools is that they do a fair type 
of old-fashioned, formal, textbook work; the children 
master the tools of learning — reading, writing, and 
arithmetic — and devote some time to the study of phys- 
iology and hygiene, geography and history. But even in 
these schools the instruction is formal and bookish; it 
appeals almost entirely to the memory, little or nothing 
being done to train the senses, cultivate observation, or 
to develop the imagination. 

High school instruction is of the same bookish type. 
Small provisions are made for the teaching of science, the 
household and industrial arts, and, with the exception of 
one or two schools, there are neither laboratories nor 
gymnasiums. The preparation of the high school teach- 
ers is far from adequate; the high schools themselves are 
unsatisfactorily organized. The amount of instruction 
offered too frequently depends, not on the qualifications 



62 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

of the instructors or the extent of the facilities, but on 
the pride or ambition of the local board. Thus a four 
year course is sometimes given where prudence would 
hardly attempt more than two or, at most, three years' 
work; and not infrequently, two or three years of high 
school work are offered where the conditions suggest dis- 
tinctly less. 

It is not necessary in this connection to give an elabo- 
rate account of this situation or to detail the different 
measures required if it is to be improved. We need 
here emphasize only two points: (i) A state high school 
system cannot be developed if everything is left to the 
local initiative of small areas. There must be a central 
guiding and coordinating authority, which, while leaving 
abundant opportunity for local action, will nevertheless 
be capable in one place of restraining excessive ambition, 
in another of stimulating backward sentiment, and every- 
where of upholding creditable standards. (2) High 
schools cannot be altogether financed by local taxation. 
The problem is indeed not altogether a local problem; 
the state at large has a distinct interest in the creation 
of a sound high school system — an interest which should 
manifest itself in financial cooperation. Rapid progress 
on a sound basis would doubtless take place if these two 
suggestions were incorporated in the law — if, that is, the 
state defined and supervised secondary education to- 
wards the support of which it made a stimulating finan- 
cial contribution. 
[ The foregoing description and discussion have had ref- 



THE SCHOOLS AND THEIR WORK 63 

erence mainly to schools for white children. Conditions 
as respects colored children do not differ materially. 
The buildings are as a rule still more unsatisfactory/ the 
instruction nowhere goes beyond the elementary grades; 
in quality there is Httle to choose. 

On the whole, therefore, public education in Delaware 
is at a low ebb. Public opinion is unaroused; profes- 
sional standards are as yet unformed ; the state organiza- 
tion, despite certain good features, is ill jointed and in- 
effective. The laws need to be rounded out, so as to 
give the state an organization the various parts of which 
play into each other effectually; policies must be framed 
on larger lines; cooperation between the state and the 
county unit must be brought out; proper provisions for 
teacher training must be made; the state, the county and 
the local community must join in raising the larger sums 
required to sustain creditable schools, adapted to the 
needs, capacity, and opportunities of the school children 
of Delaware. 



'See illustration opposite page 84. 



VIII. ENROLLMENT AND ATTENDANCE 

THE purpose of the public school is to pass every 
child of the. state through a complete elementary, 
if not a high school, course. As yet no system 
of public schools has by any means realized this purpose. 
The extent to which a system succeeds is indicated (i) 
by its success in enrolling children, (2) by the regularity 
of their attendance, and (3) by their progress through 
the schools. 

The ideal school population, that is, the children that 
should be in school, would include all children from six 
to eighteen years of age inclusive. However, in Dela- 
ware, as in a number of other states, the compulsory 
period ends with the pupil's fourteenth birthday. At- 
tendance after fourteen being voluntary, it is difficult 
for the schools to hold children of high school age. 

If we could compare the number of children in Dela- 
ware in each age group between six and eighteen (inclu- 
sive) with the number of children of each age group in 
school, we should know the extent to which the schools 
reach the children of the state. Unfortunately for our 
purposes, Delaware has no school census,^ that is, no 
one knows the total number of children in the state 
^The State Council of Defense is now taking such a census, 

64^ 



ENROLLMENT AND ATTENDANCE 65 

who are six years of age seven years of age, eight years 
of age, etc., so that no one knows how many children of 
each age the schools should enroll. We do, however, 
know approximately the number of children enrolled 
during the school year 191 7-18. The total enrollment, 
exclusive of Wihnington, was 24,163^— in incorporated 
districts, 9,084, in rural districts, 10,600, and in colored 
schools, 4,479. 

On the basis of these data, it appears that the school 
enrollment in 191 7-18 was not so large by 774 as that of 
1 91 2-13, for in 191 2-13, according to an unpublished 
report of the commissioner of education, the total en- 
rollment was 24,937 — i^ incorporated districts, 8,299, in 
rural districts, 11,769, and in colored schools, 4,869. 
This represents a total decrease of 3 per cent., for, while 
there was a gain in the incorporated districts of 9 per 
cent., there was a loss in rural districts of 10 per cent, 
and in colored schools of 8 per cent. Undoubtedly there 
were at least as many children in the state in 191 7-18 
as there were in 191 2-13; hence, the difference in the 
enrollment represents the failure of the schools to attract 
the children. War conditions in 191 7-18 ought per- 
haps to be taken into account in connection with this 
showing. 

The data in hand make clear that Delaware schools 
fail to reach large numbers of white children of certain 
age groups. For example, there were enrolled in 191 7-18 

^This includes 669 children, the estimated enrollment of schools not 
reporting, based on reports of preceding years. 



66 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

2,013 white children ten years of age.^ There were 
probably in the state just as many white children eleven, 
twelve, and thirteen years of age as there were children 
ten years of age. Since the compulsory school law ex- 
tends to the fourteenth year, there ought to be in the 
schools approximately as many eleven, twelve, and 
thirteen year old children as there are ten year old chil- 
dren. But such is not the case. The numbers drop 
from 2,013 ten year olds to 1,874 eleven year olds and 
1,712 thirteen year olds. Curiously enough, the number 
of twelve year olds in attendance (1,958) is but little 
below the number of ten year olds. 

Beyond fourteen years of age, the drop is rapid. The 
white schools enrolled in 191 7- 18, 1,568 children fourteen 
years of age; but the number of white children fifteen 
years of age dropped to 1,114; of sixteen years of age, to 
669; of seventeen years of age, to 383; and of eighteen 
years of age and older, to 198, with 47 of unknown age. 
The white schools — to say nothing of the colored —thus 
fail to reach at least 22 per cent, of the children fourteen 
years of age, 45 per cent, of the children fifteen years of 
age, 67 per cent, of the children sixteen years of age, 81 
per cent, of the children seventeen years of age, and 90 
per cent, of the children eighteen years of age. In other 
words, taking the white schools, as a whole, only 78 
per cent, of the children are held in school long enough, 
even if they attended regularly and progressed at the usual 
rate, to complete an eighth grade education, only 55 per 

iSee Appendix, Table XI, page 107. 



ENROLLMENT AND ATTENDANCE 67 

cent, long enough to complete the ninth grade, only ;^^ per 
cent, long enough to complete the tenth grade, only 19 per 
cent, long enough to complete the eleventh grade, and 
only 10 per cent, long enough to complete the high school.^ 

Actually, nothing like these proportions advance so 
far. In the first place, large numbers of children of high 
school age, that is, children fifteen years of age and older, 
are in the elementary schools of both the incorporated 
and rural districts. In fact, 760 out of the 1,114 children 
fifteen years of age, 368 of the 669 sixteen years of age, 
178 of the 383 seventeen years of age, and 67 out of the 
198 eighteen years of age, or more than half of all the 
children now in school of high school age are still doing 
grade work, to the detriment of the younger children 
in these schools and to their own great disadvantage. 
It naturally follows that the high schools are enrolling 
less than half of all white children now in school of high 
school age, to say nothing of the number of children of 
high school age out of school altogether. 

In the second place, even of those who do get into high 
school, few ever reach the fourth or last year. The high 
school enrollment, by years, in 191 7-18 was as follows: 

ist year 601 

2nd year 347 

3d year 242 

4th year 116 

Total 1,306 

^These per cents, would probably be slightly higher if we knew the ages 
of the 669 omitted. 



68 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

The heavy loss from year to year is in part due to the 
fact that, of the 44 incorporated districts, only 15 support 
four year high schools. Whatever the cause, there are 
only 116 fourth year high school pupils in the whole 
state outside of Wilmington. As pointed out before, 
there are probably more than 2,013 children old enough 
to be in this grade, which means that at the present time 
approximately only one child out of 17 actually reaches 
the final year of the public school. 

! The failure of more children to advance further in the 
schools is due not only to the fact that the schools do not 
reach all the children of the state and that high school 
facilities are limited, but also to the fact that the children 
are neither continuous nor regular in attendance. For 
example, the white schools in incorporated districts were 
in session during 191 7-18, on the average, 175 days; 
pupils were enrolled, on the average, 148 days, and at- 
tended, on the average, 127 days. The rural schools 
were in session, on the average, 151 days; pupils were en- 
rolled, on the average, 1 1 1 days, and attended, on the 
average, 84 days. The colored schools were in session, 
on the average, 140 days; pupils were enrolled, on the 
average, 102 days, and attended, on the average, 65 
days. 

■ White children living in incorporated districts thus 
have opportunity to attend school 24 days longer each 
year than white rural children, and all white children 
longer than colored children. Moreover, the white 
children of incorporated districts actually attended, in 



ENROLLMENT AND ATTENDANCE 69 

191 7-18, on the average, 43 days more than the white 
children of rural districts, while the colored children 
were in school, on the average, 19 days less than the 
white rural children. These conditions are fatal to 
thorough work and to satisfactory progress. 

With attendance so poor, it is Httle wonder that so 
few children advance far enough. An illustration will 
make clear their handicap. The ordinary elementary 
course covers eight years. The course counts on a school 
year of not less than 180 days, with 90 per cent, of at- 
tendance, or a total minimum attendance of 1,296 days. 
On this basis, with attendance in Delaware as it now is, 
it would take children of the incorporated districts on the 
average about ten years, of rural districts something 
over fifteen years, and colored children about twenty 
years to complete a standard elementary course. In 
consequence, the average child in Delaware actually 
completes nothing Hke a full elementary course of study. 

Delaware has, it is true, a compulsory school attend- 
ance law, requiring on its face that all children between 
the ages of seven and fourteen should attend school 
continuously for at least five months each year, enrol- 
ling not later than one month after the schools open. 
Unfortunately, however, local boards are permitted to 
reduce the compulsory period to three months, and an 
astonishing number take advantage of this provision. 
Out of 328 separate white districts, over a half, or 166, 
limit the compulsory period to less than five months, and 
ii5j oJ* 35 per cent., have only three months. It is 



70 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

worthy of note, however, that, without legal compulsion, 
II districts increased the period beyond five months.^ 
But whatever the length of the compulsory period, under 
present conditions the compulsory law is not and cannot 
be enforced. For example, in Kent County the average 
nimiber of days attended by boys in one room rural 
schools having a three months' compulsory period was 
69 days; in one room rural schools having a four months' 
compulsory period, 6S days; and in one room rural 
schools having a fiYe months' compulsory period, 72 
days. As stated before, the enforcement of the com- 
pulsory attendance law is in the hands of the clerks of 
the local boards, the county superintendents, and the 
teachers. There is not an attendance officer in aU the 
state. In consequence, the compulsory education law 
of Delaware is practically a dead letter. 

Not without relation to poor attendance is the absence 
in Delaware of provision for medical inspection. While 
no reliable data are available, there is no reason to sup- 
pose that physical defects and contagious diseases, both 
of which interrupt regular attendance, are less common 
in Delaware than in other states. In towns and cities 
where medical inspection has been provided, schools are 
rarely closed on account of the simpler infectious ail- 
ments — ^whooping cough, measles, chicken pox, etc.; 
in Delaware, however, the schools have not infrequently 
to be closed for weeks at a time on account of these dis- 
eases. 



'See Appendix, Table XII, page 108. 



ENROLLMENT AND ATTENDANCE 71 

The correctives for the unsatisfactory situation as 
respects enrolhnent and attendance are three: (i) The 
school year should be equalized by lengthening the term 
in all white and in all colored rural schools to at least 
180 days of actual session; (2) the present compulsory 
school attendance law should be materially modified 
and attendance officers provided; and (3) medical in- 
spection should be authorized. 

One important implication of these measures needs 
special emphasis. The lengthened school year goes 
with the improved training of teachers. As long as 147 
out of 335 white districts and 73 out of 88 colored dis- 
tricts have a school year of only seven months/ it is 
impossible to obtain well trained teachers, for while the 
monthly salary may be fairly good, the total annual 
salary is too small to warrant superior training or to 
hold persons of vigorous endowment. To make teaching 
in Delaware an occupation attractive to well trained 
teachers, the school year must be extended and thus the 
annual return increased. 



^See Appendix, Table II, page 99, 



IX. FINANCING THE SCHOOLS 

FOR the kind of education just described, what 
does Delaware pay? 
The total current expenditure in 1917-1918 on 
all the schools of the state was about $437,253.18.^ 
This sum does not include interest, debt payment, and 
expenditure for permanent improvement. It was dis- 
tributed as follows: 



TYPE OF SCHOOL 


ANNUAL 

CURRENT 

EXPENDITURE 


ANNUAL 

CURRENT COST 

PER PUPIL 

ENROLLED 


ANNUAL CUR- 
RENT COST 
PER PUPIL IN 
AVERAGE 
DAILY 
ATTENDANCE 


Incorporated Schools 

Rural Schools 

Colored Schools 


$233,544.65 

166,581.72 

37,126.81 


$25.71 

15.72 
8.29 


$35.50 

28.36 

17.75 


Total 


$437;253.18 


$18.10 


$30.06 



i The current cost, when based on enrollment, runs, it 
will be noted, from $26 per pupil in incorporated dis- 
tricts down to $16 per pupil in rural districts, and down 
to $8 per pupil in colored schools. When based on 



^See Appendix, Table XIII, page loSa. 

72 



FINANCING THE SCHOOLS 73 

average daily attendance, the current per pupil cost 
runs from $7,6 in incorporated schools to $18 in colored 
schools. The gap between current cost figured on the 
basis of enrollment and current cost figured on the 
basis of attendance is unusually wide, owing to the 
very poor school attendance. 

The marked differences in the current expenditures 
on schools of different types indicate, in general, the 
differences in the educational opportunities which town, 
rural, and colored children respectively enjoy. Thus it 
is evident that the educational opportunities of white 
children in the towns are probably a fifth better than 
the educational opportunities of rural white children, 
while the opportunities of all white children are de- 
cidedly superior to those of colored children. Even 
the highest per capita expenditure — that in the incor- 
porated schools of towns — is low; and when the cost 
of the different types of schools is combined, the 
average per pupil expenditure is very low. That is, 
Delaware buys a low and cheap brand of education. 
Probably not more than seven other states spend 
so little on education^ as Delaware. It is, however, 
still true that Delaware pays high for what it gets. 
Indeed, it is difficult to see how a state could get less for 
its money. 

As stated above, the reported expenditures for 191 7-18 
are approximate only. They are approximate because 

^See Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 191 7, Vol. II, 
page 82. 



74 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

complete and accurate financial data do not exist. Full 
data for the preceding school year are supposed to be 
in the office of the state auditor not later than the last 
of September. But under the present system the 
financial accounts of the 424 separate school districts 
cannot be audited within the time limit set by the law. 
There are always a few delinquents. For example, 
as late as the first week of November of this year (1918), 
there were 15 districts with which the auditor had not 
settled. To ascertain approximately Delaware's ex- 
penditure on public education in 191 7-18 we were there- 
fore compelled to substitute the expenditures of an 
earlier year in the case of the 15 districts not reporting. 
On the other hand, there were 11 white and 10 colored 
teachers from whom the commissioner of education had 
for 191 7-18 no data on enrollment and attendance; in 
these instances we also substituted the enrolhnent and 
attendance reported for earlier years. These substitu- 
tions, while probably not affecting materially the re- 
ported cost of the schools, reveal the disorderly con- 
ditions that prevail. On no single feature of the state 
educational system are full and reliable data available. 

The funds for the support of local schools are derived 
partly from the state and partly from local taxation 
and incidental local sources. Such money as the state 
apportions to the several school districts is raised by 
indirect taxation, Delaware being one of the few states 
which levy no direct state school tax. Like most of 
our states, Delaware has a permanent school fund, 



FINANCING THE SCHOOLS 75 

which amounts to $944,407. It yields an annual income 
of about $42,000. This sum is supplemented by an 
annual legislative appropriation from the general treas- 
ury of the state, which, for 191 7-18, amounted to 
$142,000.^ 

The state distributed in 1917-18 to the several districts, 
exclusive of Wilmington, $138,190.02, an amount equal 
to 31 per cent, of the total current cost of the schools.^ 
These state funds may be used for two purposes only- 
payment of teachers' salaries, and purchase of textbooks, 
which are provided free in all schools. 

State funds are apportioned on the basis of the number 
of teachers in service. A district employing one teacher 
in 191 7-18 received one portion or $188,^ a district 
employing two teachers, two portions or twice the 
amount, and so on. The practice of basing the state 
apportionment on the number of teachers has exer- 
cised an unfortunate influence on educational progress. 
Formerly it tended to multiply the number of districts; 
now it proves a bar to school consolidation. On other 
accounts also, this method of distributing the state 
fund is objectionable, for it disregards the number of 
pupils to be instructed and all differences in the financial 



^This appropriation has now been increased to $ 2 50,000. The $142 ,000 
is exclusive of $22,000 for the tuition of outside pupils, and other small 
appropriations for specific objects. 
., ^Sec Appendix, Table XIV, page 109. 

^For the present year, 1918-19, owing to the increased appropriation 
of the state, the apportionment per teacher is about $300. 



76 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

ability of different districts. A rich district with few 
pupils receives as much from the state as a poor district 
with many pupils. State funds should be apportioned 
so as to equalize both educational opportunities and 
financial burdens. 

The present method of apportioning the state fund is 
further objectionable in that it fails to encourage high 
school development. It is of course true that the ele- 
mentary school is fundamental and should come first. 
On the other hand, a state that lacks well equipped, 
well manned, and well located high schools possesses at 
most only part of a state school system. In Delaware 
high schools are in especial need of the state's fostering 
care, because they are likely to be small, and if left with- 
out generous aid will probably be weak. The law does 
indeed provide that rural pupils who have completed 
the sixth grade may under certain conditions attend 
neighboring graded schools at the state's expense. The 
amount thus received by the graded schools and high 
schools of incorporated districts in 191 7-18 was 
$20,247.25, equal to 8 per cent, of the total current 
expenditure of the incorporated districts.^ This addi- 
tional sum is, however, not enough, as now employed, 
to relieve the situation. 

There is, therefore, the very greatest need of adopting 
in Delaware a method of apportioning state funds which 
recognizes the differing needs of elementary school and 



^See Appendix, Table XIV, page 109. 



FINANCING THE SCHOOLS 77 

high school. State funds for elementary schools should be 
apportioned to the several local school units on a double 
basis — the basis, first, of the number of children of 
elementary school age enrolled, that is, between six and 
fourteen years of age, inclusive, and the basis, second, of 
school attendance. In recognizing the number of 
children to be instructed, the state takes account of the 
amount of work that needs to be done; in recognizing 
actual school attendance, the state takes account of the 
work really accomplished and at the same time stimulates 
the community to keep its children in school. State aid 
to high schools should be granted on the basis of the cost 
of maintaining high schools of a given grade and rank. 
For example, the state should make a fixed grant to a 
district maintaining a 20 unit high school having a 
specified equipment and employing a given number of 
teachers of specified preparation; a fixed grant of less 
amount to a 15 unit high school fulfill ng given require- 
ments as to equipment and teachers; and still less to a 
10 unit high school. Moreover, this aid should be given 
also with a view to bringing a high school education 
within reach of all children without tuition cost to the 
parents; now only a limited number of children from 
each county may so attend. 

As stated above, the second source of school support is 
local taxation. In 191 7-18, local taxation provided in 
the state, outside of Wilmington, 60 per cent, of current 
school receipts: in incorporated districts, 63 per cent,; 
in rural districts, 63 per cent.; and in colored districts, 



78 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

2,^, per cent.^ The state, it will be noted, is the main 
support of colored schools. Even the incorporated dis- 
tricts and the rural districts provide an unusually small 
proportion of the total current cost of their schools. 
This proportion is probably even lower now, for, as 
pointed out above, the state recently greatly increased 
its appropriation, without imposing any obHgations 
whatsoever on local authorities to do more for them- 
selves. 

Local taxation is of two kinds — a head or capitation 
tax, and a property tax. The law requires a minimum 
capitation tax of $2 annually on each male inhabitant 
of the school district twenty-one years of age. The 
capitation tax ranges from $2 to $6 and produces a con- 
siderable proportion of the school funds raised locally; 
what proportion of the whole is thus raised we cannot 
say, as data are lacking. A capitation tax is, however, 
not a desirable source of local school revenue; it is too 
fluctuating and too difficult to collect. For these 
reasons, this tax should not be permanently relied on for 
school purposes. 

The property tax for school purposes is levied on both 
real and personal property. The financial resources of 
districts having a one teacher white school vary enor- 
mously — from an assessed property value of $457553 
to an assessed value of $589,000.2 Inasmuch as all dis- 
tricts receive per teacher the same amount of state aid, 

^See Appendix, Table XIV, page 109. 
2See Appendix, Table XV, page io8b. 




Old Stone Rural School 



FINANCING THE SCHOOLS 79 

the rates of local taxation must necessarily differ greatly. 
As a matter of fact, they range, in white rural districts, 
from 7 cents to 85 cents on the hundred dollars, and in 
incorporated districts, from 20 cents to 90 cents on the 
hundred dollars.^ The totals raised locally vary corres- 
pondingly; one district raises $100, the minimum per- 
mitted by law, another raises nine times as much for the 
same purpose. Obviously, a system which permits such 
inequalities cannot be sound. 

Two changes are required: (i) Boards of education 
must be financially independent and must be vested 
with power enough to finance efficient schools; (2) the 
state must compel adequate local action. As the situa- 
tion now stands, the state requires local school boards 
to levy not less than $100 per teacher annually — an 
arbitrary and entirely inadequate requirement; it also 
provides that for certain violations — such, for example, 
as not keeping the schools open at least 140 days a year, 
failure of the district school clerks to settle with the 
state auditor, etc. — the whole or a part of the state 
apportionment may be withheld. But these penalties 
are almost never imposed. Besides, the principle in- 
volved is wrong. If the children of the state are to be 
safeguarded in their educational rights, the separate dis- 
trict units cannot be left free to follow their own prefer- 
ences. The state should impose upon all local boards, 
whether county boards or boards of education of sepa- 
rate districts, requirements which they must fulfill on 

^See Appendix, Table IV, page loi. 



8o PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

pain of being declared deKnquent, these requirements 
being such as will guarantee the establishment and main- 
tenance of good schools. In other words, the interests 
of the state and the welfare of the children are to be safe- 
guarded not by withholding, in case of local dehnquency, 
the aid of the state, but by imposing upon the communi- 
ties certain minimum financial responsibiHties and by 
acting directly on the proper local officials if these re- 
quirements are not fulfilled. 

Educational inequality of still another kind exists in 
Delaware. For purposes of taxation, Delaware has two 
school systems. Local taxes for white schools are levied 
on the person and property of white citizens; local taxes 
for colored schools are levied on the person and property 
of colored citizens. This practice is clearly undemo- 
cratic. In apportioning its own funds the state makes 
no such distinction; it ought not to countenance any 
such distinction in respect to local taxation. Nowhere 
else in the United States does this practice prevail. It 
is absolutely indefensible. 

Finally, there remain certain features of the old tax 
system that should be eradicated. For example, the 
clerks of the local school boards still make up the tax 
duplicate for their respective districts, and collect the 
school taxes. There are, accordingly, some 424 school 
tax collectors in the state, each getting 8 or 10 per cent, 
of the amounts collected after the loth of August; per- 
sons who pay their school taxes before August loth get 
a discount of 8 per cent. The amount received by any 



FINANCING THE SCHOOLS 8i 



one collector is not large, and there are clerks who take 
nothing for this service. Of those taking the fees, the 
average in 130 one teacher districts reporting was, in 
1917-18, for Kent County, $20; for New Castle County, 
$15; and for Sussex County, $18.^ Yet the aggregate 
amounts to several thousand dollars. Economy and 
efficiency alike require that school taxes should be col- 
lected as other local taxes are collected, without the in- 
tervention of a special army of school tax collectors. 
Under a county system of school organization, it is easy 
to centralize school tax collection. The county school 
board would make the levy for all the schools, white 
and colored, under its jurisdiction, and the taxes so 
levied would be collected by the county collector; in 
the few separate districts provided for, the local board 
of education would make the levy for all the schools, 
white and colored, under its jurisdiction, and this levy 
would be collected by the collector of other municipal 
taxes. 

To summarize, the present financial support of Dela- 
ware schools is inadequate, school tax burdens are un- 
equal, school support uneven, and the present system 
of school taxation undemocratic. These undesirable con- 
ditions will persist so long as the state allows prac- 
tically unrestricted freedom to small local units. A 
sound system will not hamper local initiative; but it 
will begin by requiring that the local unit should at least 
do its duty. In apportioning state funds, the state 
iSee Appendix, Table XVI, page io8c. 



82 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

should seek to equalize educational opportunities and 
school tax burdens, taking into consideration the dif- 
ferences between the elementary school and the high 
school. Finally, if Delaware is to have good schools, it 
is certain that the amount of local financial support 
must be greatly increased; it may also prove necessary 
for the state to increase its appropriations. Let it not 
be forgotten that improved education cannot be ob- 
tained without expense; let it also be remembered that 
the states which hold their own people and attract immi- 
gration are not the states that have low taxes and poor 
schools, but rather those that have good schools for 
which the people are glad to tax themselves to the limit 
of their resources. 



X. CONCLUSIONS 

IN THE course of the preceding chapters we have, 
in describing and criticizing present conditions, also 
indicated the nature of the changes required. In the 
present chapter, these suggestions will be brought to- 
gether in order that the reader may obtain a clear view 
of the reorganization that is, in our judgment, imperative. 
The state board of education should become a lay 
board to which persons officially connected as officers 
or trustees with institutions affected by its action should 
be ineligible. The board's function should be, not itself 
directly to manage or administer the schools, but to de- 
termine large questions of poHcy and to select agents 
whom it should hold to strict accountability. The board 
should choose the commissioner of education, who should 
be its executive officer. The principle on which the 
powers and duties of the board and the commissioner 
should be allotted is clear. Matters relating to govern- 
ment and legislation belong to the board; everything hav- 
ing to do with the execution of the will of the board, such 
as the inspection, supervision, and administration of the 
schools, belongs to the commissioner of education, subject 
to the board's authority and approval. A thoroughgoing 
revision of the school laws in strict conformity with this 

S3 



84 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

principle will localize responsibility, facilitate the work 
of the commissioner of education, and free the board 
from the necessity of taking up technical details. The 
relation sought would be analogous to that existing be- 
tween a board of directors and the manager of a business 
corporation. Like the board of directors, the state board 
would establish controlling policies; like the business man- 
ager, the commissioner of education would be responsible 
for the conduct of the schools in conformity with these 
policies. 

The state board of education, should be empowered 
to fix the salary of the commissioner and of sub- 
ordinates selected on his recommendation and working 
under him. Its funds should be sufficient to cover the 
necessary incidental expenses of the board members, to 
provide suitable office quarters, equipment, and clerical 
assistance, and to prepare such publications as are neces- 
sary to inform the state of its work and of the condition 
and needs of the schools. 

The powers of the state board need to be increased in 
other important respects. For example, the board is 
now authorized to withhold the whole or a part of the 
state dividend in case local school officials fail to comply 
with the law or with its rules and regulations. But, as 
we have pointed out, the laws, as well as the regulations 
of the board, are now violated with impunity. Mean- 
while, the state distributes its dividends regardless of 
whether the law is enforced or broken. The remedy is 
obvious; The state board should be authorized in such 




a, 



CONCLUSIONS Ss 

cases, on the recommendation of the commissioner of 
education, to remove the offending officials from office. 

The state board should also be empowered to fix the 
grade of work that schools may attempt. The instruc- 
tion in one teacher schools should probably be limited^ 
where possible, to the first six grades. It may also 
prove important at times to limit the work undertaken 
in villages and towns. Many a village and town 
school, spurred by local pride, is now unduly expanded. 
Where this occurs, it would be in the interest of sound 
education to restrict the courses offered and to arrange 
to procure for the pupils further opportunities in other 
schools within reach. 

Again, the state board should be vested with full 
powers over the examination and certification of 
teachers, county superintendents, supervisors, principals, 
and attendance officers. Under this arrangement, the 
higher certificates would usually be issued on the basis 
of satisfactory evidence of qualifications and experience, 
while the examinations of elementary teachers would be 
held, as now, at stated intervals, at the county seats of 
the respective counties. The questions would be pre- 
pared and the answers read by the state commissioner 
of education and his assistants, while the county super- 
intendents would merely conduct the examinations and 
certify to the character of the appHcants. AppHcants 
would not be inconvenienced by the centralization of 
authority, while uniformity of standard would thus be 
estabHshed. 



S6 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

Finally, the school buildmg situation in Delaware, as 
pointed out, is critical. Even of the newer school build- 
ings, some are very good and some are very poor; but 
whether a new building is well planned or not is now a 
matter of accident. To introduce system where chance 
now rules, the state board should receive authority to 
prescribe regulations governing the building of school- 
houses, and the state commissioner, as its executive of- 
ficer, should be required, after examining plans and specifi- 
cations, to give written approval before building con- 
tracts become vaHd. Moreover, the state board, on the 
written recommendation of the commissioner of educa- 
tion, should be vested with authority to condemn school 
buildings where they are obviously a menace to the health 
and safety of the children. 

In this, as in all other respects, the state board should 
act through its executive officer, the commissioner of 
education, but the resources at the disposal of the com- 
missioner of education, inadequate at present, need to be 
extended as well as specialized, if the office is to be made 
efficient. The staff of the state department should be in- 
creased to include, at the very least, two stenographers, 
a clerk to be in charge of reports, and an assistant to be 
in charge of educational statistics and special studies. 
There should also be a reasonable allowance for office 
equipment, office supplies, printing, and traveling ex- 
penses. 

The proposed program is not elaborate; if it seem so 
that is because the present organization is so utterly in- 



CONCLUSIONS 87 

adequate. The expense of conducting the state depart- 
ment should be regarded as an overhead charge, incurred 
for the purpose of getting better results from the state's 
present school expenditure. If we assume that the sum 
is $15,000 a year, let it be remembered that this is the 
most economical way of making sure that the half million 
dollars raised by the state and locally are effectively em- 
ployed. This is economy in the best and largest sense 
of the word. 

A strengthened state department of education would 
avail little unless accompanied by a reconstructed and 
strengthened local educational organization. To this 
end, the county should be made the local administrative 
unit, at the head of which should be placed a county 
school board, with large educational and financial powers, 
and with an adequate professional staff. The more popu- 
lous and wealthy centers should be erected into separate 
school districts, on condition that they fulfill certain re- 
quirements as to the grade of schools to be maintained, 
the grounds, buildings, and equipment to be provided, 
the preparation of the teachers to be employed, and the 
administrative direction and supervision to be suppHed. 
Such a qualified county system permits the larger towns 
to enjoy a measure of local autonomy, and at the same 
time secures to the smaller towns, villages, and open coun- 
try the benefits of a centralized organization. 

Under a county school system, the county board of 
education represents local educational interests. That 
the people may have a direct voice in the control and 



88 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

development of their schools, the county board of edu- 
cation should be elected by the people; but tenure should 
be so arranged as to give stability to the board and 
continuity to its policy. If members of the county 
board are chosen at the time of the general county 
election, they should be voted for on a separate ballot 
without partisan designations. 

Even under a county system, there will still be need 
in rural sections of local school trustees, but these 
should be appointed by the county board and have re- 
stricted powers. 

The educational powers of the county board, subject 
to the general law and the rules and regulations of the 
state board, should cover the making of rules and regu- 
lations applicable to the conduct of the schools under 
local conditions, the adaptation to local needs of courses 
of study outlined by the state department, and the 
selection, appointment, and assignment of teachers, on 
the nomination of the superintendent. The powers of 
the local trustees over principals and teachers should be 
limited to filing written charges with the county board 
in case of dissatisfaction, while the dismissal in each case 
should be ordered on the recommendation of the county 
superintendent, with the approval of the county board. 
Local pride and interest must, indeed, be cultivated, but 
these are in the end best subserved by those measures 
that make for school efficiency. 

On the other hand, the county boards must be vested 
with financial power adequate to enable them to estab- 



CONCLUSIONS 89 

lish and maintain satisfactory schools; that is, they must 
be put in position to do their duty by the schools. At 
the present time there is scarcely a school in the state 
which is not suffering from unjustifiable lack of funds. 
To give county boards adequate financial powers does 
not mean needless expenditure of public money. School 
boards elected by the people are just as amenable to 
local influences as other bodies. They cannot go faster 
than local sentiment approves or local resources allow. 

To be effective, the newly established county boards of 
education must be provided with an adequate profes- 
sional staff, made up of a well trained county superin- 
tendent, quahfied supervisors, and attendance officers. 
No one should be eligible to appointment as county 
superintendent unless he be a college graduate, who has 
had at least five years of experience in the elementary 
schools and not less than one year of professional grad- 
uate work in an approved university, specializing in 
educational administration and supervision. The ap- 
pointee should also be required to procure a certificate 
from the commissioner of education and his appoint- 
ment should bear the commissioner's written approval. 
The term of the county superintendent should be at 
least four years, and his salary should not be permitted 
to fall below a given minimum. 

The county superintendent should bear full responsi- 
bility for the conduct of the schools in conformity with 
the state laws. He should have authority over the 
county courses of study, choice of textbooks from the 



90 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

state list, school supplies, the grading of the schools, 
the examination and promotion of pupils, the admission 
of rural children into graded schools and into high 
schools, and the selection, employment, and placing of 
all teachers. 

We have pointed out that the schools of Delaware 
suffer woefully from a lack of supervision. In fact, the 
schools in the open country and villages, and as a rule 
in the larger towns, are really not supervised at all. 
Well trained county superintendents will labor to little 
purpose unless provided with supervisory assistance. 
It should therefore be made mandatory upon each county 
to employ supervisors as follows: in Sussex County, not 
less than three; in Kent and New Castle counties, not 
less than two each, the counties being permitted to have 
as many more as may be locally thought desirable. To 
guard against incompetency, the supervisors employed 
should hold a certificate in supervision from the com- 
missioner of education, based on academic and specialized 
professional training equivalent to graduation from col- 
lege, and not less than three years of experience as a 
teacher in the elementary schools. They should receive 
a salary commensurate with the importance of their 
services. 

Into schools thus improved the children of the state 
must be regularly and continuously brought. To this 
end, the state requires a genuine compulsory attendance 
law affecting all children old enough to go to school and 
all who have not completed the eight grades of the ele- 



CONCLUSIONS 91 

mentary school. But compulsory education does not 
enforce itself. Hence, the employment in each county 
of at least one attendance officer, whose qualifications 
are certified to and whose employment is approved by 
the state cormnissioner, should be made mandatory. 
To secure properly qualified persons for this important 
work, an adequate annual salary should be guaranteed. 

Finally, in order that competent county educational 
officials may do the work awaiting them, decent quarters 
and a fair amount of office help are necessary. The 
state should, therefore, require county boards of educa- 
tion to provide satisfactory offices and office facilities, 
to employ adequate clerical assistance (at least one 
stenographer and statistical clerk), to provide means of 
travel and to bear all expenses necessary to the perform- 
ance of official duties. 

A county organization such as outlined involves the 
outlay in New Castle and Kent counties of approximately 
$12,000 a year each, and in Sussex County, approximately 
$14,000 a year, or a total for the three counties of 
$38,000. Once more, however, this expenditure is 
made in order to obtain effective service from sums 
many times as great. To carry this overhead expense 
would be a heavy financial burden upon the counties. 
At the present time, the state bears the entire expense of 
the county boards and the county superintendents. 
It would, therefore, involve no new principle or prece- 
dent for the state to assume a part of the expense of the 
proposed county organization by bearing, for example, 



92 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

the salary of the county superintendent, the supervisors, 
and the attendance officer. 

As pointed out above, the adoption of the county 
system of organization is not inconsistent with making 
separate school districts out of the larger towns. These 
separate districts would have boards of education, 
elected by the people, with powers similar to those of the 
county boards. The authority to create separate dis- 
tricts should be vested in the state board of education, 
and these separate districts would be subject to its super- 
vision. Towns erected into separate districts would con- 
tinue as such so long as they met the requirements im- 
posed by the law and the state board of education. On 
failure to meet these requirements, as revealed by state 
inspection, such towns would forfeit their privilege and 
their schools would automatically come under the control 
of the county board of education. 

The foregoing changes in state, county, and local 
organization, and the proposed increased expenditures 
for professional administrative and supervisory assist- 
ance are all absolutely essential, and should, as soon as 
practicable, be followed by the making of proper pro- 
vision for the training of elementary teachers, both 
white and colored. Delaware, as a sovereign state, 
cannot rely upon chance importation of trained teachers 
from the adjoining states — ^more especially as experience 
proves that it cannot even so obtain what it needs in 
respect to either number or quahty. 

These steps taken, it follows that the state board 



CONCLUSIONS 93 

of education must be authorized to specify in terms of 
academic and professional training the conditions 
on which teachers' certificates may be granted, and the 
law must so circumscribe the granting of certificates 
that after a reasonable period of time they may be issued 
only to persons of satisfactory academic and profes- 
sional preparation. Otherwise, certificates will con- 
tinue to be issued, on the ground of expediency and 
temporary pressure, to the young, the inexperienced, 
and the ill trained. 

Finally, a new method of distributing state funds 
should be introduced. In the first place, the state 
board of education should present to the governor, who 
would in turn transmit to the general assembly, a budget 
including, by items, all appropriations requested for 
public education. Conflict of interests would thus be 
avoided, and the part which the state is taking in the 
promotion and encouragement of pubUc education would 
be made clear. 

In the distribution of state dividends, a distinction 
should be made between the elementary and high 
schools. In apportioning state funds to elementary 
schools, two factors ought to be considered: (a) the 
school population between six and fourteen years of 
age, in so far as it is enrolled, and (b) school attendance. 
If the state's aid is based on school enrollment and 
attendance the state makes of its aid, as it should, a 
powerful lever in getting children into the school and in 
securing regular attendance. 



94 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE 

A different principle is involved in aiding high schools. 
High schools, as suggested above, cost more than elemen- 
tary schools, and the cost of high schools in Delaware is 
particularly high, because they are small and will doubt- 
less continue to be small. Therefore, state aid to high 
schools should be distributed with direct reference to 
the cost of high school education. A certain specified 
sum should be allotted to first class high schools, that is, 
to those having four year courses; another amount to 
second class high schools, those having three year 
courses; and still another amount to third class high 
schools, those having two year courses. 

There is a further important factor to be taken into 
account. A high school education should be within 
reach of every child in Delaware. While county boards 
of education should, as far as possible, develop high 
schools, the high schools of the state oflFering four year 
courses will of necessity be located mostly in the separate 
districts. Therefore, aid should be given with a view 
to making these high schools free and accessible to all 
the children of the county, county children being required 
to complete first the course as far as it goes offered by 
the high school nearest at hand. 

The changes in the school laws of Delaware which we 
have suggested are at once obvious and fundamental. 
But we should in candor point out that even better laws 
do not of themselves make better schools. How much 
actual improvement results from the reorganization 
which we recommend will in the end depend on the 



CONCLUSIONS 95 

spirit in which this reorganization is effected. Politics, 
personal interest, local selfishness may go far to nullify 
the value of any reform. The new law will make good 
schools possible; Delaware will, however, obtain them 
only if the people of the state are seized with fresh in- 
terest and faith in education, only if they are thoroughly 
convinced that education is the most sacred and im- 
portant of the state's functions, only if they are highly 
resolved that, whatever else Delaware does, the state 
will at least do what it is now conspicuously failing to do, 
namely, its plain duty to the children of the common- 
wealth. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX 



99 



TABLE I 
Attendance at Annual School Meetings (White), 191 8 



DISTRICT 


NUMBER 

OF 

DISTRICTS 

REPORTING 


AVERAGE 

NUMBER OF 

VOTERS IN 

DISTRICT 


AVERAGE 
NUMBE?. 
VOTING AT 
ANNUAL 
MEETING 


PER CENT. 

VOTING AT 
ANNUAL 
MEETING 


Incorporated. 
Rural 


19 

167 


261 

46 


35 
10 


13 
22 


Totali 


186 


68 


12 


18 



I150 white districts missing. 



TABLE II 
Days Schools Were in Session in Different Districts, 191 7-1 8 





Days Schools Were in Session 


Average 
Number 
of Da^'s 

in 
Session 


District 


131 
to 
140 


141 

to 

160 

3 

62 

5 

70 


161 
to 
180 


181 
to 
200 


Unknown 


Total 


Incorporated . . . 

Rural 

Colored.. 


3 

144 

73 

220 


32 

61 

3 


6 

17 


7 
7 


44 

291 

88 


175 
151 
140 


Totali 


96 


23 


14 


423 


164 



1 1 district missing. 



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APPENDIX 





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Teacb 

IN 



High Schools. 

Elementary Sc 
Incorporal 
Rural Dis 



Total... 

Colored School 

Grand Total.. 

iThis is es 



TABLE X 
Monthly Salaries of Teachers 1918-19 





Monthly Salarks 






$35 

1 
1 


$40 

19 
19 


$45 

16 
40 
56 


$50 

17 
56 

73 

16 

89 


$55 

24 

89 
3 
92 


$60 
3 

52 
103 

155 

2 

160 


$65 
3 
42 
68 


$70 
3 

32 
24 

56 
59 


$75 
12 

17 
15 

32 

44 


$80 
10 

10 

7 

17 
27 


$85 
4 

3 

1 

4 
8 


$90 
10 

1 
11 


$95 
2 

1 
1 

3 


$100 
9 

1 
1 

10 


$105 


$110 
2 

2 


$115 

1 


$120 
6 

1 

7 


$125 
4 

4 


$130 


$135 


$140 


$145 


$150 
2 

1 
3 


Over 

$150 

3 
3 


Total 


IHrIi Schools 


74 






Elementary Schools: 

Incorporated Districts 
Rural Districts 


i?i 


Total 


515 


Colored Schools 


81 


Grand Total 


670» 


■ This is exclusive of 8 


prin 


cipa 


ls:o 


ne re 


ceiviii 


g$S- 


o, t\\ 


o$i. 


ooo.c 


ne$ 


,460, 


two 


fi.Soc 


, one $1,527.30, and one $»,ooo 


per year. Fifty-sii 


teachers are missing. 





APPENDIX 



107 









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APPENDIX 



TABLE XII 

Length of Compulsory Attendance Period in White Districts, 

1917-18 





No. OF Months In Compulsory Period 




District 


3Mos. 


4Mos. 


5 Mos. 


6 Mos. 


7 Mos. 


Un- 
known 


Total 


Incorporated 
Rural 


2 
113 


10 
41 


29 
105 


1 
4 


2 

4 


17 


44 
284 


TotaP ..... 


115 


51 


134 


5 


6 


17 


328 



18 white districts missing. 



io8a 



Co 

i 
Dii 



New Castle . 
Incorporated 

Rural 

Colored . . 

Kent 

Incorporated 

Rural 

Colored . . 

Sussex 

Incorporated 

Rural 

Colored 

State 

Incorporated 

Rural 

Colored .... 

iln the casi 



TABLE XIII 
Current Expense Disbursements 1917-18' 



County 

AND 

District 



New Castle . . . . 
Incorporated . 

Rural 

Colored 



Kent 

Incorporated . 

Rural 

Colored 



Incorporated . 

Rural 

Colored 



State 

Incorporated 

Rural 

Colored 



320,268.36 
163,995.34 
126,799.57 
29,473.45 



6,696.44 
2,953.32 
2,645.79 
1,097.33 



23,666.75 
10,869.39 
10,150.92 
2,646.44 



9,128.57 
5,271.13 
3,248.58 



8,652.99 

1,523.07 

6,306.21 

823.71 

22,578.85 
9,250.05 
11,498.91 



$18,241.24 
10,265.20 
7,550.12 



58,138.03 
43,29Z58 
12,670.16 
2,175.29 



of 15 districts which did not report, current expense disbursements for 1915-16 were substituted 



5,637.91 
2,278.15 
2,927.25 



12,601.19 
6,137.29 
5,462.16 
1,001.74 



$134,820.06 
63,145.58 
61,643.19 
10,031.29 

145,664.15 
93,941.99 
38,161.35 
13,560.81 

156,768.97 
76,457.08 
66,777.18 
13,534.71 

437,253.18 
233,544.65 
166,581.72 
37,126.81 



UENT 

Per Pu- 
pil En- 
rolled 



$21.29 
28.52 
19.82 
9.95 

19.92 
30.35 
14.97 
8.13 



18.10 
25.71 
15.72 
8.29 



TABLE XV 
Assessed Value of Property m One Teacher Rural White Districts, 1917-18 

















Assessed Value of Pkopeety 












County' 


$40,001 
$50,000 


$50,001 
$60,000 


$60,001 
$70,000 


.$70,001 
$80,000 


,$80,001 
$90',000 


$90,001 

to 
$100,000 


$100,001 
$110^000 


$110,001 
$120°000 


$120,001 
$130°000 


$130,001 
$140?000 


$140,001 
$150,000 


$150,001 
$160 000 


$1()0,001 
$170,000 


$170,001 
$180,000 


$180,(X)1 
$190?000 


$i;x).ooi 

to 
$2(X),000 


Over 
$200,000 


Total 


N™ Castle 


1 


3 

5 


2 
10 


1 
7 
4 


4 
7 


2 
5 

7 


2 

7 
13 


2 
4 
3 


4 
4 
3 


6 
3 


2 
5 


3 


3 


2 


3 

1 
2 


1 


12 

1 
3 


'^ 


Sussex 


70 


Total 


1 


8 


12 


12 


17 


14 


22 


9 


11 


14 


7 


5 


5 


4 


6 1 3 


16 


166 



'Owing to differences in assessment methods, county by county comparisons are not valid. 



io8c 




County 


Not! 




mg 


New Castle. 


6 


Kent 


3 


Sussex 


1 


Totali.... 


10 


Il28( 


>ne tea( 



TABLE XVI 
Amounts Paid for Collecting School Taxes in One Teacher White Districts 





Amounts Paid 


Total 
Districts 


Total 

Amount 

Paid 




County 


Noth- 
ing 


Under 
$5.01 


From 
$5.01 

to 
$10.00 


From 
$10.01 

to 
$15.00 


From 
$15.01 

to 
$20.00 


From 
$20.01 

to 
$25.00 


From 
$25.01 

to 
$30.00 


From 
$30.01 

to 
$35.00 


From 
$35.01 

to 
$40.00 


From 
$40.01 

to 
$45.00 


From 
$45.01 

to 
$50.00 


From 
$50.01 

to 
$55.00 


Fro,n 
$55.01 

to 
$60.00 


Averaoe 

Amount 

Paid 


New Castle. 
Kent 


6 
3 
1 


[ 


5 
5 
5 


6 
11 


6 
5 
16 


6 
10 
12 


4 
I 


4 
2 
2 


2 


2 


1 




1 


37 

i 


957.06 


$15.16 
20.46 
18.06 


Totali.... 


10 


2 


15 


22 


27 


28 


9 


a 


2 


3 


2 




1 


129 


2,315.97 


17.95 



1 128 one teacher white ( 



APPENDIX 



109 



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